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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, f 



THE 



Silver Country 



THE GREAT SOUTHWEST 



A REVIEW OF THE MINERAL AND OTHER WEALTH, THE 

ATTRACTIONS AND MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

FORMER KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN, COMPRISING 

MEXICO AND THE MEXICAN CESSIONS 

TO THE UNITED STATES IN 

1848 AND 1853 



v*i 



ex^d. Anderson 



NEW YORK 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

182 Fifth Avenue 

1877 

7l 




Copyright, 1877, 
By G. P. Putnam's Sons. 







PREFACE. 



No work on New Spain, considered as a whole, 
has been published since the close of the war with 
Mexico, when half of the territory known by that 
name was acquired by the United States ; and, on 
the subject of its resources, no work since Ward's 
"Mexico," issued in 1827. That valuable book 
was published in London, is little known in this 
country, and is to be found in very few of our pub- 
lic libraries. So, for all practical purposes, Baron 
Humboldt's " Political Essay on New Spain," trans- 
lated into English, and published in London in 
1822, is the latest authority. Books on individual 
States or Territories of the Southwest are, however, 
abundant. But a general or more comprehensive 
review seems to be needed for business and other 
purposes. 

The Southwest, in the early part of the sixteenth 
century, because of its mineral wealth and luxuries, 
excited the admiration of the whole world. It is 
once more coming into great prominence, and is 
destined to play a leading part on the stage of 



4 PREFACE. 

public affairs, both national and international. The 
advance of internal improvements through its ter- 
ritory, and the beginning of a new era of material 
development, is reuniting New Spain in an indus- 
trial and commercial sense, and makes necessary a 
grouping together of local facts and statistics into 
a general work. Such a combination of statistics 
gives wonderful results, for Mexico, prolific in trea- 
sures, golden California, and silver Nevada come 
within its limits. 

New Spain seems to be the natural and most 
convenient territorial basis for a book, for the rea- 
son that it was, for three hundred years, from 1521, 
when Cortez and his soldiers accomplished the con- 
quest, until 1 82 1, when Mexico declared her inde- 
pendence, ruled by the Spaniards, who were very 
prolific writers, and who in their many histories 
observed the same territorial limits. Again, the 
country, as a whole, is very uniform in its charac- 
teristics, such as general prevalence of silver, high 
table-lands, ancient history prior to the Spanish 
rule, and in many other respects. 

This is a book of facts, not theories. It de- 
scribes the land of silver, and shows that the South- 
west is producing, each year, two-thirds of the 
silver of the whole world ; but it does not attempt 
to discuss the merits of a double standard of gold 
and silver. It treats of railways generally, and 



PREFACE. 



5 



gives facts and figures showing how these great 
civilizers have neglected the Southwest ; but it 
does not advocate any individual enterprise. It 
freely expresses its admiration for undeveloped 
Mexico ; but it does not join in any cry for another 
conquest, except so far as the future conquest may 
consist of the advance of railways, a thrifty civil- 
ization in place of the inertia of the present lethar- 
gic races, of commerce and the arts of peace, all of 
which will stimulate the material prosperity of both 
Republics. It does not profess to be a full review 
of the varied riches and attractions of the South- 
west, as such a review would require several large 
volumes. But it does claim to be accurate, and 
the authorities are freely cited, in legal brief style, 
to confirm the accuracy of all statements and sta- 
tistics. Nature was so profusely liberal in the en- 
dowment of this portion of the earth's surface, 
that facts about the riches of the Southwest fur- 
nish the writer with abundant material, and it is 
unnecessary to draw on the imagination to make 
out a case. 

Much time and labor have been spent in the 
search for and examination of the various books 
composing the list in the chapter on Authorities; 
and it is believed that chapter will be serviceable 
to the reader, for the reason that of the one hun- 
dred and twenty-nine volumes on Old Mexico, 



6 PREFACE. 

about half, and that the best half, were published 
in London, and have a very limited circulation in 
this country. 

The author hopes that the facts and figures in 
the following pages will act as an appetizer for 
more, and will attract the attention of the reader 
to the rich feast of information which the Spanish, 
English, and American discoverers, travelers, and 
historians have prepared in their many volumes. 

The elevations of the southern or Mexican half 
of New Spain, as given in the accompanying map, 
are from an hypsometric map in Geiger's " Peep at 
Mexico," published at London in 1874. For the 
illustration of the elevations of the northern half 
of New Spain (now a portion of the United States) 
the author is indebted to W. H. Holmes, Esq., of 
Prof. Hayden's Survey, who prepared the map, to 
correspond to that of Mexico, from data contained 
in the detailed and elaborate hypsometric map is- 
sued by that Survey during the present year. 

The railway lines are from recent official and 
other reliable sources. 

Alex. D. Anderson. 

Washington, D. C, October, 1877. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 

Definition, 11 — Bounderies, 15 — Area and comparisons, 19 — 
Table-lands and elevations, 21 — Its remarkable situation, 25. 

CHAPTER II. 

ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 

The treasures of the Toltecs and Aztecs 29 

Working of the mines by the Toltecs and Aztecs 36 

Product of silver and gold of Mexico, 1 521-1804 39 

Product of silver and gold of Mexico, 1804-1848 41 

Product of silver and gold of Mexico, 1 848-1 876 42 

Product of silver and gold of California, 1848-1876 43 

Product of silver and gold of Nevada, 1848-1876 45 

Product of silver and gold of Arizona, 1848-1876 46 

Product of silver and gold of New Mexico, 1848-1876 47 

Product of silver and gold of Utah, 1848-1876 48 

Product of silver and gold of Southern and Western Colorado, 

1848-1876 49 

Total product of silver and gold of the Southwest or New Spain, 

1521-1876 50 



8 CONTENTS. 

Progress of mining in the Southwest 51 

Products of silver and gold of the Southwest compared with 

each other 54 

Products of silver and gold of the Southwest compared with that 

of the world 58 

Product of silver and gold of Mexico since 1848 compared with 

that of the territory ceded by her to the United States 59 

Product of silver and gold since 1848 of the territory acquired 

from Mexico compared with that of the rest of the United 

States 59 

Silver product of the Southwest, or New Spain, compared with that 

of the whole world 60 

Mineral wealth of the Border States 64 

Present condition and wants of the mining industry 71 

Future products of silver and gold in the Southwest 76 

CHAPTER III. 

OTHER WEALTH THAN SILVER AND GOLD. 

Preliminary remarks 79 

Wheat 81 

Cotton 87 

Indian corn 91 

Barley 93 

Cattle 93 

Sheep and wool 95 

Coffee 9 6 

Sugar 98 

Cochineal 101 



CONTENTS. 



9 



Silk 102 

Quicksilver 102 

Fruits and wines 103 

Resume 106 

CHAPTER IV. 

LUXURIES AND ATTRACTIONS. 

Facilities for the acquirement of wealth 108 

Topography and climate 1 10 

Scenery and wonders 113 

Antiquities 118 

Flowers 123 

Fruits and wines 125 

Luxurious living 126 

CHAPTER V. 

THE AUTHORITIES. 

Preliminary 130 

Aztec Books 133 

Spanish histories , ( 135 

Works in English 136 

Authorities on Mexico , 137 

Authorities on California 149 

Authorities on Texas 157 

Authorities on New Mexico 162 

Authorities on Arizona 164 

Authorities on South and West Colorado 165 



10 CONTENTS. 

Authorities on Nevada 166 

Authorities on Utah 167 

Authorities too general for the above territorial classification. . . . 168 

Resume 183 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE FOREIGN COMMERCE OF MEXICO. 

Its natural course 188 

Mexico's exchanges with all countries 190 

Mexico's exchanges with the United States 196 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE ADVANCE OF RAILWAYS. 

The importance of national highways 201 

The advance of railways in the United States, and the South- 
west 205 

The advance of railways in the Southwest compared with that in 

other countries and the world 208 

Facilities for constructing railways in the Southwest 212 

Reasons why railways have not crossed the Southwest 217 

A look ahead 218 

Conclusion 219 



The Silver Country; 



THE GREAT SOUTHWEST. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 



DEFINITION. 

SOON after the conquest of Mexico, in 1521, by 
Cortez and his soldiers, the restless ambition of the 
Spanish stimulated them to extend the possessions 
of their king farther north into the present terri- 
tory of New Mexico and Arizona. As early as 
1530, say the historians, Nuno de Guzman, one of 
the leading officials of Mexico, under the crown, 
heard from a native Indian of cities in the north. 
He organized a company of soldiers, and set out 
for their conquest ; but the expedition became dis- 
banded on the way.* A few years later, about 

* " The Conquest of New Mexico," by W. W. H. Davis, p. no. 



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OFTHE SOUTH WEST, ORNEWSPMH 

WITH 

IN OPERATION 1877 

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The Ocean Warm Streams. 



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BowuIiiiyLuirtifXrn) Spain. \ I I'lider I0OO Ft above Si'< 



The Silver Country; 



OR, 



THE GREAT SOUTHWEST. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 



DEFINITION. 

SOON after the conquest of Mexico, in 1521, by 
Cortez and his soldiers, the restless ambition of the 
Spanish stimulated them to extend the possessions 
of their king farther north into the present terri- 
tory of New Mexico and Arizona. As early as 
1530, say the historians, Nuno de Guzman, one of 
the leading officials of Mexico, under the crown, 
heard from a native Indian of cities in the north. 
He organized a company of soldiers, and set out 
for their conquest ; but the expedition became dis- 
banded on the way.* A few years later, about 

* " The Conquest of New Mexico," by W. W. H. Davis, p. no. 



12 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

1536, one Cabeza de Vaca, with a few comrades, es- 
caping from an unfortunate Spanish expedition to 
Florida, crossed overland from the Gulf of Mexico, 
and passed through New Mexico and Arizona, on 
the way to Old Mexico to join their countrymen. 
They brought with them further reports of large 
cities in the north. 

Marco de Niza, a Franciscan friar, was, in 1539, 
sent in command of an expedition to investigate 
the reports.* He went far enough to see, but was 
too cautious to enter the cities. He did not hesi- 
tate, on his return, to describe them in the most 
glowing terms, and immediately the Spanish love 
of conquest and glory knew no restraint. A well- 
equipped military expedition, under the lead of 
Don Francisco Vasquez Coronado, started in the 
early part of 1 541, to subject the " Seven Cities of 
Cibola," as they were called, to the Spanish rule. 
They found the cities, and captured all seven, which 
together constituted one province. The historian 
of the "Conquest of New Mexico" says: "The 
province of Cibola contained seven villages, situated 
in a warm valley between high mountains ; one of 
them took the name of the province, and another, 
called Muzaque, is said to have been the most popu- 
lous. The houses were ordinarily four and five sto- 
ries high, and some few in Muzaque were six and 

* Idem, p. 114. 



DEFINITION AND DE SCRIP TIVE NO TES. t 3 

seven." * These cities were near the present city 
of Zuni, and near the boundary line between New 
Mexico and Arizona, about halfway between their 
northern and southern limits. After this victory 
Coronado and his soldiers, in their explorations of 
the northern country, marched through several 
other provinces, which together contained seventy 
villages or cities. The line of their march extended 
across nearly the whole length and breadth of Ari- 
zona and New Mexico, through Southern Colorado, 
and up through Kansas to its northern boundary, 
and back through what is now the Indian Terri- 
tory.f Wherever they went they were victorious.^: 
But they did not find such magnificent palaces and 
treasures as Cortez had found in Montezuma's Mex- 
ico. The expedition of Coronado was not at once 
followed up by Spanish settlements ; but as early as 
1 591, Don Juan de Onate, with a large number of 
followers, went north to remain and introduce 
Spanish civilization § in what is now the Territory 
of New Mexico. Soon after others established set- 
tlements and missions in California, Arizona, and 
Texas. 

This broad and then undefined country in the 
north, together with the present Republic of Mex- 

* Idem, p. 167. f Idem, p. 221. \ Idem, p. 267. 

§ See Simpson's account of the march, in Smithsonian Report for 
1867. 



14 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



ico, was, as early as 1522, known as New Spain, and 
was ruled by Spanish viceroys until Mexico threw 
off the Spanish yoke in 182 1. It is the same country 
and the only portion of North America which was 
occupied by the civilized nations of the native races 
for centuries prior to the conquest. It is the portion 
of America oldest in European civilization. It is 
the same country that the Spanish historians wrote 
about for three centuries. It is the land that was 
called Mexico until the revolution in Texas caused 
the first loss of territory ; but as Mexico continued 
to claim Texas until 1848, we will call it Mexico 
until that date. It is, then, a combination of Mex- 
ico and the territory she relinquished to the United 
States in 1848 by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 
and by the treaty of 1853, commonly known as the 
Gadsden Purchase. It is, in other words, a com- 
bination of old Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, Cali- 
fornia, Texas, Nevada, Utah, and Southern and 
Western Colorado. Strictly defined it is the south- 
west portion of North America. It is, finally, a 
country very uniform in its resources, character- 
istics, and attractions. Later events have helped 
to define the limits of New Spain, and as, for the 
purposes of this book, the Southwest and New 
Spain are used as interconvertible terms, we will 
briefly locate the lines. 



DEFINITION- AND DE SCRIP TIVE NO TES. \ 5 

BOUNDARIES. 

Baron Humboldt, in his exhaustive work on 
New Spain (the time of his explorations being 
about the beginning of the present century), said : 
"The kingdom of New Spain, the most northern 
part of all Spanish America, extends from the 
16th to the 38th degree of latitude." Farther on, 
in the same volume, he says : " We are uncertain 
as to the limits which ought to be assigned to 
New Spain to the north and east."* In 1803 the 
United States, by the Treaty of Paris, purchased 
the Province of Louisiana from France, and the 
southern and western boundaries of that purchase 
would, if they had been defined, determine the 
dividing line between the United States and New 
Spain. But the treaty was silent on that point, 
and not until the treaty between the United States 
and Spain, of February 22, 1819, was the bounda- 
ry finally adjusted. This treaty was the result of 
lengthy correspondence and negotiations between 
John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, and 
Don Louis de Onis, the Spanish minister. The 
claims of their respective Governments were based 
upon the disputed limits of the early French and 
Spanish discoveries and settlements in the South- 
west. The United States having previously pur- 

* " Political Essay on New Spain," i. 16 and 274. 



1 6 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

chased all of the possessions and claims of France 
west of the Mississippi River, took the place of 
France in this correspondence about the dividing 
line. Mr. Adams claimed that La Salle and other 
French explorers, who entered the Mississippi 
valley from Canada, on the north, had, after ex- 
ploring nearly the whole length of the Mississippi, 
extended the possessions of France far into the 
southwest, or to a point within the present State of 
Texas. The Spanish minister opposed this claim, 
and maintained that the early voyages and dis- 
coveries of De Soto, Narvaez, and others, and the 
fact that the province of Texas was organized as 
early as 1690 by the viceroyalty of New Spain, 
gave Spain title to territory in the southwest 
claimed by the United States as the successor of 
France. The treaty was the result of these histo- 
rical researches and negotiations.* The language 
of the treaty on the limits is as follows : " The 
boundary line between the two countries, west of 
the Mississippi, shall begin on the Gulf of Mexico, 
at the mouth of the river Sabine, in the sea, con- 
tinuing north along the western bank of that river 
to the 32d degree of latitude ; thence by a line due 
north, to the degree of latitude where it strikes the 
Rio Roxo of Nachitoches, or Red River ; then fol- 

* See vol. iv. " American State Papers on Foreign Affairs," pp. 468 
to 478. 



DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 



17 



lowing the course of the Rio Roxo westward to the 
degree of longitude 100 west from London, and 23 
from Washington ; then crossing the said Red River 
and running thence, by a line due north, to the 
river Arkansas ; thence following the course of the 
southern bank of the Arkansas to its source, in lati- 
tude 42 north ; and thence by that parallel of lati- 
tude to the South Sea. The whole being as laid 
down in Melish's map of the United States pub- 
lished at Philadelphia, improved to the first of Jan- 
uary, 1818. But if the source of the Arkansas 
River shall be found to fall north or south of lati- 
tude 42, then the line shall run from the said 
source, due south or north, as the case may be, till 
it meets the said parallel of latitude 42, and thence 
along the said parallel to the South Sea." * 

A subsequent section of the treaty provided for 
the appointment of commissioners and surveyors 
to run the line, but for some reason they were not 
appointed. After Mexico became independent, a 
treaty between that Republic and the United 
States, in 1828, made a similar provision for com- 
missioners and surveyors to run the line, but again 
was the duty under the treaty neglected. f The 
line is not yet definitely located, except by the 
language of the treaty of 1819, without a survey. 

* 8 United States Statutes, pp. 255-6. 
f Idem, p. 372. 



1 8 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

That language is sufficiently^ definite, except in 
locating the line from the source of the Arkansas 
River to the 42 of north latitude, and here there 
may be a conflict of opinion in regard to the true 
source of the river. A recent drainage map of 
Colorado, by the surveying expedition under Prof. 
Hayden, shows one of the sources to be at Home- 
stake Peak, about latitude 39 20' north, and longi- 
tude 106 25' west, on the dividing ridge between 
the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. A boun- 
dary commission appointed to carry out the pro- 
visions of the treaty might select some other one 
of the small mountain streams as the true source 
of the Arkansas River, and thereby locate the line 
several miles east or west of the one running north 
from Homestake Peak. As the treaty of 1848 be- 
tween the United States and Mexico changed the 
boundary line between the two Republics and 
placed it far in the southwest, the line through 
Colorado ceased to be of international importance, 
and for that reason -was the survey neglected after 
the Mexican war. But as a matter of history, it is 
to be regretted that it was not surveyed. Possibly 
the investigation by the United States courts of 
the Spanish or Mexican land claims in Southern 
Colorado may again make this historical line of 
practical importance. 

New Spain, or the Southwest, may then be said 



DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 



19 



to embrace all of the present Republic of Mexico 
and that portion of the United States south and 
west of a line from the Gulf up the course of the 
Sabine River to latitude 32 ; thence by a line due 
north to the Red River ; thence along the course 
of that river to longitude 100 west from London; 
thence due north to the Arkansas River ; thence 
along that river to its source ; thence due north to 
latitude 42 ; thence along that parallel of latitude 
to the Pacific Ocean. 

AREA AND COMPARISONS. 

To the New-England reader, who is accustomed 
to smaller divisions of territory, it may seem an 
exaggeration to assert that New Spain will contain 
New England, territorially, twenty-five times. Yet 
such is the fact. The single State of Texas will 
contain all New England four times. It will con- 
tain Rhode Island two hundred and ten times, 
yet the two States are equally represented in the 
United States Senate. The areas, in square miles, 
of the six States and Territories which come wholly 
within the limits of the acquisitions from Mexico, 
and consequently wholly within that portion of 
New Spain now possessed by the United States, 
are, contrasted with the areas of the six New-Eng- 
land States, as follows : 



20 THE SILVER COUNTRY, 



Texas 274,356 

California 188,981 

New Mexico... 121,200 

Nevada 104,125 

Arizona 113,916 

Utah 84,476 



Total 887,054 



Maine 35,ooo 

Vermont 10,212 

New Hampshire. 9,280 

Massachusetts... 7,800 

Connecticut 4>7S° 

Rhode Island. . . 1,306 



Total 68,348 



Adding 80,397 for the area of the fractional parts 
of other States within the limits of the acquisi- 
tions, we have a total of 967,451 square miles ac- 
quired from Mexico, as against 761,640 square 
miles which Mexico has left. These figures com- 
bined show the area of New Spain to be 1,729,091 
square miles, or a territory as large as the combined 
areas of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, 
Spain, Italy, and, to save the trouble of naming 
further European nations, we will add England 
twenty-one times more, and yet have territory 
enough left for several extensive cattle ranches. 
To contrast the new with the old, New Spain will 
contain the kingdom of Spain over eight times. 
How many times richer it is in products of silver 
and gold, and how much glory the crown of Spain 
gained, but to lose in America, will appear in sub- 
sequent pages. 



DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 2 \ 



TABLE-LANDS AND ELEVATIONS. 

Referring again to Baron Humboldt, whose 
works are the standard authority on New Spain, he 
says of the country constituting the great interior 
of the Southwest between Santa Fe" in New Mex- 
ico, and the city of Mexico : " We are led to ask 
whether in the whole world there exists any similar 
formation of equal extent and height (between five 
thousand and seven thousand feet above the level 
of the sea). Four-wheeled waggons can travel from 
Mexico to Santa Fe\ The plateau whose leveling 
I have here described is formed solely by the broad 
undulating flattened crest of the chain of the Mex- 
ican Andes ; it is not the swelling of a valley be- 
tween two mountain chains."* Another good 
authority tells how a wheeled carriage could start 
on a table-land five thousand five hundred feet high 
in the State of Oajaca, a little above the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec, and as far south as latitude i6° 20', 
and roll on without difficulty to Santa F6 in the 
north, a distance of above one thousand four hun- 
dred miles.f 

It is safe to assert that the same, carriage might 
find a high table-land, good roads, and an easy trip 

* " Views of Nature," p. 209. 

f Paper on Mexico in Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World. 



22 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

northward into Southern Colorado, near the upper 
boundary of New Spain. 

A French writer on Mexico, after describing 
some high mountain-peaks near latitude 19 north, 
says: "With the exception of the narrow band 
marked by these majestic peaks, Mexico presents a 
table-land stretching out far toward the north, with 
undulations that have no notable change of alti- 
tude save at long distances. Immense plains look- 
ing like the dry basins of ancient lakes succeed one 
another, separated by hills that barely rise six hun- 
dred and fifty to eight hundred feet above the gen- 
eral level." * 

Another authority describing the Mexican Andes 
says : " The backs of the mountains form very elevat- 
ed plateaus, or basins sufficiently uniform in height 
to be regarded as one continuous table-land." f 

Another writer, after explaining how the great 
chain of mountains which enters Mexico in the 
south soon divides into two parts and extend north- 
wardly on opposite sides of Mexico along the coast 
lines, says : " The whole of the vast tract of coun- 
try between these two great arms, comprising about 
three-fifths of the entire surface of the empire, con- 
sists of a central table-land, called the plateau of 
Anahuac, elevated from six thousand to upward of 

* "Mexico, Ancient and Modern," by Chevalier, 2d vol., p. 98. 
\ Paper on Mexico in American Cyclopaedia. 



DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 



23 



eight thousand feet above the level of the sea. 
Hence, though a large portion of this plateau be 
within the limits of the torrid zone, it enjoys a tem- 
perate climate, inclining, indeed, more to cold than 
to excess of heat." * 

The central portion of this remarkable table- 
land of Mexico is more elevated than the sides, but 
even they are sufficiently elevated to make the 
descent generally abrupt and difficult on the east 
and west. The same formation continues, as we 
go north, into that portion of New Spain lying 
within the limits of the United States, but near the 
boundary between the two republics the country 
is less elevated, and slopes more gradually on the 
east and west sides. 

The whole territory of New Mexico is a continu- 
ation of the table-land extending northwardly from 
old Mexico, and speaking generally, may be called 
a gradually inclined plain. Even the Rio Grande 
River flowing through the middle of New Mexico 
is an elevated or mountain river, being at El Paso, 
on the southern line of the territory, 3,800 feet 
above the sea, at the northern line of the territory 
about 7,000 feet above the sea.f Gannett accounts 
for the 121,200 square miles of territory in New 
Mexico as follows : \ 

* Paper on Mexico in McCulloch's Geographical Dictionary. 

f " List of Elevations," by Henry Gannett, Washington, 1877, p. 149. 

\ Idem, pp. 160-162. 



24 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



Elevations in Feet. Square Miles. 

3,000 and 4,000 2,000 



4,000 
5,000 
6,000 
7,000 
8,000 
9,000 
10,000 
11,000 



5,000 52,000 

6,000 28,000 

7,000 22,000 

8,000 6,500 

9,000 5,000 

10,000 3,200 

11,000 1,800 

12,000 700 



No wonder the people of New Mexico love their 
mountain home, and prefer its pure and invigorating 
air to the depressing fogs and heavy atmosphere of 
lower elevations. 

The mean height of each of the six divisions, 
or States, of New Spain, lying wholly within the 
United States, is as follows: * 

Ft. above Sea. 

' New Mexico 5,660 

Arizona 4,300 

Nevada 5 ,600 

I Utah 6,100 

Western border State — California 2,800 

Eastern border State — Texas 1,850 

Mean height of the six States 4>3^5 

From these Tables of Elevations it appears that 



Interior States- 



* Gannett, pp. 160-162. 



DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 2$ 

half of the Southwest, lying within the United 
States, is, like old Mexico, highly elevated, and the 
most so in the interior. Contrasted with the United 
States, the great interior of New Spain is convex, 
while the great interior, or Mississipi Valley of 
the United States is concave. In other words, 
one is chiefly table-lands, and the other chiefly 
valley. 

ITS REMARKABLE SITUATION. 

No country in the whole world is so favored in 
its situation between oceans and nations, and on 
the highway of the world's commerce, as is New 
Spain. It has a coast-line of 7,513 miles. 

It lies between the warm streams of the North 
Atlantic and North Pacific. That portion of the 
equatorial current which enters the Gulf of Mexico 
south of the West Indies, encircles the larger por- 
tion of the gulf, and flows out north of the West 
Indies to help form the gulf or warm stream of the 
North Atlantic, has a positive effect upon the whole 
eastern coast of New Spain. One part of the Kuro- 
siwo, or warm stream of the North Pacific, flows 
down along the western coast of New Spain, bring- 
ing its characteristic climatic influences and bless- 
ings.* 

* " Gateways to the Pole," by Silas Bent, St. Louis, 1872. 



26 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



The oceans nearly meet at Tehuantepec, which 
constitutes the southern extremity of New Spain ; 
and should the long talked-of canal be constructed, 
opening a new and short route between the ports 
of the Atlantic and Pacific, there would be a re- 
markable saving of distance in the voyage from 
New York to San Francisco, viz. : 

Statute Miles. 

New York to San Francisco (via Cape 

Horn) 16,360 

New York to San Francisco (via Tehuan- 
tepec) 4,741 



Saving of distance (via Tehuantepec). . 11,619 

Vessels sailing from New York to China and 
Japan usually go by way of Cape of Good Hope 
instead of Cape Horn. Could they cross New Spain 
by means of a ship canal the saving of distance 
would be very great, as the following table of dis- 
tances shows : 



New York to Japan (Yokohama) . 
China (Hong Kong) 



Via Cape of 
Good Hope. 



(Naut. Miles.) 
I5J50 
I4,OI5 



Via Te- 
huantepec. 



(Naut. Miles. 

9»435 
10,755 



Saving of 
Distance. 



(Naut. Miles.) 
5,715 
3,260 



New Spain, in competition with England for the 



DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 



27 



trade ©f China and Japan, has a decided advantage 
in situation, notwithstanding England has short- 
ened her route by use of the Suez Canal. Tak- 
ing, for the comparison, San Diego, which is the 
central one of the great harbors of New Spain, and 
Liverpool, which is the leading harbor of Eng- 
land, and giving England the benefit of the shortest 
possible route, which is via Suez, the result is as 
follows : * 

Naut. Miles. 

Liverpool to China (Hong Kong) 9,568 

San Diego " " 6,861 

Difference in favor of San Diego 2,707 

Liverpool to Japan (Yokohama) 1 1,403 

San Diego " " 5J39 

Difference in favor of San Diego. ...... 6,264 

But Benton's historical exclamation, " There is 
the East ! there is India ! " in his great speech in 
favor of a Pacific Railway at the National Conven- 
tion in St. Louis, in 1849, nas l° st some of its com- 
mercial significance since the Southwest has de- 
veloped such marvelous riches. We have a more 



* These tables of distances are compiled from statistics prepared 
at the Hydrographic Bureau, and from a publication by H. Stuckle 
on '* Inter-oceanic Canals and Distances." 



28 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

magnificent country than India at our own door, 
and instead of dwelling upon the international ad- 
vantages of New Spain, we will consider its in- 
trinsic wealth. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



2 9 



CHAPTER II. 

ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



THE TREASURES OF THE TOLTECS AND AZTECS. 

In its grand westward course the star of empire 
has reached the Pacific coast, and for some time 
has been glowing with unusual splendor amidst the 
wonderful riches of California and Nevada. Its 
circle was complete when it reached the ocean, op- 
posite Asia, the starting-point of civilization and 
commerce. It must now stand still, again encircle 
the globe, or deflect its course to a position nearer 
the center of the great Southwest. What attrac- 
tive forces does New Spain possess? And do we 
find abundant allurements in silver and gold? The 
record of the mines is very incomplete until the 
thirst for gold had incited Cortez's army to almost 
superhuman achievements in subjecting the Aztecs 
to the crown of Spain. 

But here and there we find detached allusions to 
the treasures of the native races, their working of 
the mines, and their unrivaled skill as goldsmiths. 



30 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Indeed so great was their skill as artists in the 
working of precious metals, that the proud and 
usually illiberal conquerors were compelled to ad- 
mit the Aztec superiority in this respect.* How 
great were their products of silver and gold from 
the seventh century, the beginning of their authen- 
tic history, down to 1521, a period of about nine 
hundred years, we can only conjecture. But his- 
tory has preserved sufficient data about the splen- 
dors of that early civilization to prove that the sum 
total of products of the mines must have been ex- 
ceedingly large. 

New Spain, or such portions of it as were occu- 
pied by the civilized nations of the native races, 
was, from about 600 A. D. to the Spanish invasion, 
successively ruled by the Toltecs, the Chichimecs, 
and the Aztecs,f the Toltec supremacy being the 
longest. Those nations may have preserved rec- 
ords of the workings of the mines, for they were 
well advanced in learning, as well as wealth and 
luxuries. The Spanish found, at the Aztec capital, 
a large collection of histories and public docu- 
ments, which they consigned to the flames ; and, 
for aught we know, those records may have con- 
tained much information in regard to the precious 
metals. 

* " History of the Conquest of Mexico," by W. H. Prescott, i. 140. 
f See " Native Races of Pacific States," by H. H. Bancroft, v. 158. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



31 



Prescott, the historian, says of the Toltecs, they 
" were the true fountains of the civilization which 
distinguished this part of the continent in later 
times." * Humboldt says of the tenth century, 
under Toltec rule, that " Mexico was in a more 
advanced state of civilization than Denmark, Swe- 
den, and Russia." f The historian of the " Native 
Races of the Pacific States " testifies to the same 
effect as follows : " If the ancient traditions may 
be believed, the Toltec monarchs built as magnifi- 
cent palaces as their Aztec successors. The sacred 
palace of that mysterious Toltec priest-king, Quet- 
zalcoatl, had four principal halls facing the four 
cardinal points. That on the east was called the 
Hall of Gold, because its halls were ornamented 
with plates of that metal delicately chased and 
finished; * * * the hall facing the south was 
decorated with plates of silver, and with brilliant- 
colored sea-shells which were fitted together with 
great skill." % The Italian historian of Mexico 
says: "The Toltecs were the most celebrated 
people of Anahuac for their superior civilization 
and skill in the arts ; whence, in after ages, it has 
been common to distinguish the most remarkable 
artists, in an honorable manner, by the appellation 

* Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico," i. 12. 

f Humboldt's " Researches in America," p. 83, 

% Bancroft's "Native Races," ii. 173. 



32 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



of Toltecas. * * * They had the art of cast- 
ing gold and silver, and melting them in whatever 
forms they pleased." * More testimony might be 
given showing the Toltecs were very proficient in 
the arts, and had advanced to a high degree of civ- 
ilization, and splendor. But it is too general in its 
nature to assist in forming an estimate of their 
supply of the precious metals. 

The Spanish and other historians have left us 
fuller accounts of the treasures of the Aztecs. Ber- 
nal Diaz, who was one ofCortez's soldiers in the 
invasion of Mexico, kept memoranda of events, and 
in after years, when he had returned to Spain, used 
them as a basis for a history of that remarkable 
conquest. His writings contain frequent allusions 
to the presents from the Aztec king. The first 
mention is of one sent by Montezuma to the Span- 
ish camp, before they had advanced toward the 
capital, or Tenochtitlon, as it was then called. He 
says, after describing the speech of the official who 
brought the presents, " he then brought forth, out 
of a species of box, a quantity of gold trinkets of 
beautiful and skillful workmanship." f 

Again, he tells of an embassy sent from Monte- 
zuma to meet Cortez, who had then started on his 
march for the capital. The ambassadors were ac- 

* " History of Mexico," by F. S. Clavigero, i. 114. 

f " The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz," i. 88. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



33 



companied by an hundred Indian porters well laden 
with presents of various kinds : " The first was a 
round plate, about the size of a wagon wheel, re- 
presenting the sun, the whole of the finest gold, 
and of the most beautiful workmanship, a most 
extraordinary work of art, which, according to the 
account of those who weighed it, was worth above 
twenty thousand gold pesos. The second was a 
round plate, even larger than the former, of mas- 
sive silver, representing the moon, with rays and 
other figures on it, being of great value. The third 
was the casque, completely filled with pure grains 
of gold, as they are found in the mines, worth about 
three thousand pesos, which was more to us than if 
it had been ten times the value, as we now knew 
for certain there were rich gold mines in the coun- 
try. Among other things there were also thirty 
golden ducks, exactly resembling the living bird, 
and of splendid workmanship ; further figures re- 
sembling lions, tigers, dogs, and apes ; likewise ten 
chains, with lockets, all of gold, and of the most 
costly workmanship." * 

Diaz tells of another embassy, with a message 
from Montezuma to Cortez, while at the city of 
Tlascalla, which " was accompanied by a valuable 
present in gold trinkets, of various workmanship, 
worth about one thousand pesos." f Another, which 

* Idem, i. 90 and 91. f Idem, p. 170. 



34 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



met Cortez at some place on the march toward 
Mexico, with " presents consisting of gold trinkets, 
of various workmanship, worth about ten thousand 
pesos." * He tells of another embassy from Mon- 
tezuma which was accompanied, as usual, with " a 
present in gold trinkets, of various workmanship, 
worth altogether above two thousand pesos." f 
Again, of an embassy which brought " presents in 
gold and cotton stuffs.";): 

All of these presents, sent to Cortez, were before 
his first visit to the capital and Montezuma's pal- 
ace. In Diaz's description of the first peaceful en- 
try of the Spanish troops, and the very hospitable 
reception by the Aztec king, he says that, when 
Montezuma conducted Cortez to a room in the pal- 
ace, he " hung about his neck a chaste necklace of 
gold, most curiously worked with figures all repre- 
senting crabs." § 

But the bounteous hospitality shown to the 
Spaniards did not satisfy their greed for gold, and 
soon Montezuma was detained by them as a pris- 
oner. They used the arts of diplomacy to accom- 
plish their ends, and Cortez succeeded in persuading 
Montezuma to collect large quantities of treasures 
to send to the king of Spain. It seems that prior 
to this event the Spanish, while in possession of 

* Idem, p. 190. f Idem, p. 210. 

\ Idem, p. 216. § Idem, p. 223. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



35 



the Aztec palace, had discovered a secret chamber 
or storehouse of treasures in gold and silver. This 
discovery they withheld from Montezuma. Diaz 
tells how Montezuma sent to the officials of the 
various provinces of his empire for gold to help fill 
out the proposed present ; how he added to the col- 
lection the treasures of the secret chamber ; that 
" when the articles were set apart in three heaps 
and weighed, the silver and other precious things 
was found to be worth above 600,000 pesos ; in this 
are not included the gold plates, bars and gold-dust 
contributed by the other provinces." * The reader 
will observe that values are given for only a small 
portion of these presents, but the total of those 
which have values attached is 636,000 pesos, or 
$7,422, 1 20. f How much that would be increased 
if the value of the other treasures was stated is a 
matter for conjecture. 

All of these acquisitions of treasure by the Span- 
iards were prior to the sanguinary battles which led 
to the downfall of the Aztec empire. Soon after 
the last-mentioned present, they became alarmed 
at the conduct of the natives, and made a precip- 
itous retreat from the city. While fleeing across 
the causeway over the lake, they were fiercely at- 

* Idem, p. 277-279. 

f The value of pesos is, according to Prescott, eleven dollars and 
sixty seven cents. He says that Diaz always means pesos de oro, which 
is different horn pesos, or the Spanish dollar. — Prescott, i. 320, 321. 



36 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

tacked, and, according to Prescott, lost in the lake 
" chests of solid ingots " of their spoils.* After 
describing their return and attack upon the city, 
and its final capture, Prescott tells how the Spanish 
were bitterly disappointed in the amount of booty 
found ; how they believed the Aztecs had buried 
or hidden the larger portion of the valuables ; how 
they tortured Guatomozin, one of the Aztec offi- 
cials, to tell where the treasure was secreted, and 
how he replied " that much gold had been thrown 
into the water ; " f how they searched in* a pond in 
the garden of this prince, and found " a sun, as it is 
called, probably one of the Aztec calendar wheels, 
made of pure gold of great size and thickness." % 
Prescott evidently inclines to the opinion that the 
Spanish were right in their suspicions, and that the 
Aztecs had delighted in defeating the greed of the 
conquerors by secreting much treasure. 

THE WORKING OF THE MINES BY THE TOLTECS 
AND AZTECS. 

But where did this great mass of gold and silver 
come from? That question excited the curiosity 
of the Spaniards, and they took early steps to trace 
the localities of the mines. Diaz says that soon 
after Montezuma was made a prisoner, Cortez asked 
him where the mines were, and on the strength of 

* Prescott, ii. 366. \ Prescott, iii. 234. % Idem, p. 235. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



37 



the information received in reply sent out three 
expeditions to discover them ; that one of the three 
brought back three hundred pesos of gold-dust, 
and reported that " the caziques of the province 
employed numbers of the inhabitants at the rivers 
to wash gold out of the sand in small troughs." 
He says of the second expedition, that it did not 
"return with empty hands;" and of the third, 
under Pizarro, that it brought back gold-dust of 
the value of one thousand pesos ; that Pizarro 
reported a visit to the Chinantec caziques, "who 
ordered a number of the inhabitants to repair to 
the river, to wash the gold-dust from the sand. 
The gold-dust here found is of a curly shape, and 
the inhabitants said the mines where the metal was 
found in that shape were much more productive, 
and the metal more solid." * 

Prescott says of working of the veins of silver 
and other metals, "in the solid rock into which 
they opened extensive galleries," that " the traces 
of their labors furnished the best indications for 
the early Spanish miners ; " that " gold found on 
the surface or gleaned from the beds of rivers was 
cast into bars, or, in the form of dust, made part 
of the regular tribute of the southern provinces of 
the empire." f 

* Diaz's " Memoirs," i. 273-276. 
f Prescott's "Conquest," i. 138, 139. 



38 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Lastly, Baron Humboldt, who had studied the 
resources of New Spain more closely than any 
other writer, said : " Long before the arrival of the 
Spaniards, the nations of Mexico, as well as those 
of Peru, were acquainted with the use of several 
metals. They did not content themselves with 
those which were found in their native state on 
the surface of the earth, and particularly in the 
beds of rivers and the ravines formed by the tor- 
rents ; they applied themselves to subterraneous 
operations in the working of veins ; they cut gal- 
leries and dug pits of communication and ventila- 
tion, and they had instruments adapted for cutting 
the rock."* 

Such is the array of testimony of the historians. 
It proves that the civilized native races worked the 
mines in an extensive and scientific manner; that 
they possessed enormous quantities of treasure ; 
and that, as artists in the working of gold and sil- 
ver they were more skillful than the goldsmiths of 
Europe. Adding to this evidence the fact that the 
Aztec nation was very numerous, that their cities 
were many and large, their architecture costly and 
magnificent, and their living luxurious, it is appa- 
rent that the sum total of their products of silver 
and gold must have been very large. But it is im- 
possible to affix a definite value. Only by a com- 

* Humboldt's " New Spain," iii. 109. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. og 

parison of their products with those since the con- 
quest can an estimate of the value be obtained, and 
that must be an unsatisfactory one. 

It may not seem unreasonable to suppose that 
the total products of gold and silver in the South- 
west, under the civilization of the native races, for a 
period of nine hundred years, was equal to one-fifth 
of the total products during the three hundred and 
fifty-five years since the conquest. 

What, then, have the mines yielded since the 
Spanish invasion ? 

PRODUCT OF SILVER AND GOLD OF MEXICO, 
1 521-1804.* 

For the statistics of this period Baron Humboldt 
is the standard authority, and his estimates have 
been accepted as correct by nearly every historian 
and statistician. His great reputation as a scien- 
tific man procured for him unusual privileges from 



* This period is to, but not inclusive of, 1804. Whenever a pe- 
riod is mentioned in this chapter, the estimates are inclusive of 
the first year, but not inclusive of the last. The reader, if he has 
occasion to compare any of these estimates with those of the au- 
thorities from which they are taken, may occasionally meet with an 
apparent mistake ; but on examination he will find the discrepancy 
owing to the fact that the figures of the original source are inclusive 
of the last year. There is such a difference of statisticians in this 
respect, and so frequent an omission to tell whether the estimates are 
or are not inclusive of the last year, that great care is necessary in 
making quotations. 



40 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



the king of Spain, who allowed him the freedom 
of the Spanish colonial possessions in America for 
the purposes of his explorations and report. How 
well he improved the opportunity is shown by the 
completeness of the report on the resources of New 
Spain. In compiling his statistics be made use of 
the official registry of coinage for the period 1690- 
1804. But for the period 1 521-1690 he based his 
calculations partly upon official records and partly 
upon estimates of his own, for the registry was in- 
complete prior to 1690. 

The amount of coinage of gold and silver of New 
Spain (Mexico and New Spain then being intercon- 
vertible terms), as stated by him, is as follows : * 

1521-1548 $40,500,000 

1 548-1690 . . 374,000,000 

1690-1804 1,353,452,000 

Total coinage $1,767,952,000 

To this he adds one-seventh, or, in round num- 
bers, $260,000,000, for that portion of the product 
of the mines which, for various reasons, failed to 
pass through the mints, making the total products 
of gold and silver for the whole period, ending at 
the beginning of 1804, $2,027,952,000. 

* Humboldt, iii. 413-420. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 4I 

PRODUCTS OF SILVER AND GOLD OF MEXICO, 
1 804- 1 848. 

For the products of silver and gold of Mexico for 
the period 1 804-1 848 (this period, also, being prior 
to the cessions of territory to the United States, 
and New Spain and Mexico being one and the 
same territory), the statistics of Danson read be- 
fore the Statistical Society of London, in 1850, are 
very elaborate and sufficiently cautious to be inside 
rather than outside the true amount. 

They are so well substantiated by explanations 
and reasoning that we will adopt tfrem in prefer- 
ence to the estimates of any other authority.* He 
based his calculations for the period 1 804-1 847 
upon the returns of the British consuls and the work 
in Spanish of M. St, Clair Duport. For the year 
1847 ne took an average of the products of the five 
preceding years. It will be observed that Danson 
includes the year 1848, and that the following sta- 
tistics differ because of the omission of that year, 
and it is better to include 1848 in the next period, 
as it is the beginning of the yield of gold in Cali- 
fornia. 

The registered product of gold for the period 
1 804-1848 is $31,038,815. And the registered pro- 
duct of silver is $548,334,598. Danson estimates 

* Journal of Statistical Society of London, xiv. 26, 27. 



42 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

the registered product of gold as three-eighths of 
the whole product, and the registered product of 
silver as four-fifths of the whole product. We have, 
then, as the total product of gold of New Spain for 
the period 1804- 1 848, $82,770,173 ; the total pro- 
duct of silver, $685,418,247; and the total product 
of both metals, $768,188,420. 

PRODUCT OF SILVER AND GOLD OF MEXICO, 
I 848- I 876. 

For this period Mexico and New Spain are not 
identical, for New Spain was divided at the close 
of the Mexican war. We will, then, hereafter con- 
sider separately the products of Mexico and the 
other divisions of New Spain. 

The Commissioner of the General Land Office, 
in his annual report for 1867, made a special and 
very elaborately prepared report on the products of 
the precious metals. He estimates the products of 
Mexico to the beginning of 1868 as follows : * 

Gold. Silver. Both Metals. 

1 848-1 868, $50,000,000 $420,000,000 $470,000,000 

The report estimates the annual product (the 
time of writing being 1867) as $26,000,000 in silver 
and $3,000,000 in gold. Phillips, an English au- 
thority whose estimates are much quoted, said of 

* Report of Commissioner of General Land Office for 1867, p. 187. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



43 



Mexico in 1867: " Since 1850, however, the mines 
of Mexico have regained their ancient prosperity, 
and their present annual produce cannot be much 
less than $26,000,000 in silver and $3,200,000 in 
gold." * 

The United States Consul-General at Mexico, in 
his report to the State Department, estimates the 
products of Mexico, for 1875, as $75,000 in gold, 
and $27,000,000 in silver. 

For the eight years 1868 to 1876, we will adopt 
the estimate of the annual product, as given by the 
Commissioner of the General Land Office, f which 
makes the silver product, $208,000,000, and the gold 
product, $24,000,000. 

The total product of both metals in Mexico is, 
then, as follows : 

1848-1876 $702,000,000 

PRODUCT OF SILVER AND GOLD OF CALIFORNIA, 
I 848- I 876. 

For the products of the precious metals of this 
State and other States in the cession from Mexico, 
we have as authority the various reports of the 
United States Commissioner of Mining Statistics 

* " The Mining and Metallurgy of Gold and Silver," by J. A. Phil- 
lips, p. 269-270. 

f See Report for 1867, p. 187. 



44 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



except for the year 1876. Unfortunately the report 
for that year was left unprovided for by Congress. 

The reports are ten in number, and for the years 
1866 to 1875, inclusive. The second report by J. 
Ross Browne, the first Commissioner, gives an esti- 
mate of the product from the first discovery of gold 
in 1848 to the beginning of 1868.* Adopting that 
estimate and the annual estimates thereafter to 
1876, we have, as the total product of gold and sil- 
ver, the following : 

1848-1868 $900,000,000 

1868 22,000,000 

1869 22,500,000 

1870 25,000,000 

1871 20,000,000 

1872 19,049,098 

1873 18,025,722 

1874 20,300,531 

1875 17,753,151 

Total 1848-1876 $1,064,628,502 

It will be observed that according to the above 
table the average annual yield of the California 
mines, during the first twenty years after the com- 
mencement of mining operations, was $45,000,000, 
or more than double what it has been since. The 
largest product was in 1853, when it reached 

* See Report for 1867, p. 6 



ITS WEAITH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



45 



$65,000,000.* The average annual product for the 
whole period of twenty-eight years is $38,022,446. 

PRODUCT OF SILVER AND GOLD OF NEVADA, 
I 848-I 876. 

The mines of Nevada were not worked until 
1859, when silver was first discovered. The pro- 
ducts of the precious metals, as estimated in the 
various official reports of the United States Com- 
missioner of Mining Statistics, down to the begin- 
ning of 1876, are: 

1848-1868 $90,000,000 

1868 14,000,000 

1 869 14,000,000 

1870 16,000,000 

1871 22,500,000 

1872 25,548,801 

1873 35»254,507 

1874 35,452,233 

1875 40,478,369 

Total $293,233,910 

The average annual product of this Territory, 
from the discovery of silver in 1859 to the be- 
ginning of 1876, a period of seventeen years, was 
$17,249,053. 

* Raymond's estimate in vol. iii. Transactions of the American 
Institute of Mining Engineers, p. 202. 



4 6 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



PRODUCT OF SILVER AND GOLD OF ARIZONA, 
I 848-I 876. 

Arizona was a portion of the Territory of New- 
Mexico until 1863, when it was organized as a 
separate Territory. The Government Commissioner 
of Mining Statistics estimates the combined pro- 
ducts of New Mexico and Arizona, from 1848 to 
1868, as $5,000,000.* It is probably nearly cor- 
rect to consider New Mexico and Arizona as equal 
in their products for that period. Beginning with 
1868, the Commissioner gives the separate products 
down to 1876: 

1848-1868 $2,500,000 

1 868 500,000 

1869 1,000,000 

1870 800,000 

1871 800,000 

1872 625,000 

1873 500,000 

1874 487,000 

1875 750,000 

Total, 1 848-1 876 $7,962,000 

* See Commissioner's Report for 1867, p. 6. ' 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 47 

R. AND GOL 
I 848- I 876. 

The mines of New Mexico were worked for 
many years prior to 1848, but probably in a small 
manner. Blake says : " The gold field of New 
Mexico has been known and worked since 1828. 
The portion so known is confined to the Placer or 
Gold Mountains, about twenty miles from Santa 
Fe, towards Albuquerque. The yield of gold has 
been chiefly from placers, and was estimated by 
Wislizenus, in 1847, to vai T f rom $30,000 to $250,- 
000 a year, but it soon after diminished, until it 
became comparatively insignificant."* It is evi- 
dent they were worked at a much earlier period, 
and possibly by the native races before the Span- 
ish conquest of New Mexico. Gregg, who was for 
several years a Santa Fe trader, and was familiar 
with the Territory of New Mexico, says: " In every 
quarter of the Territory there are still to be seen 
vestiges of ancient excavations, and in some places 
ruins of considerable towns, evidently reared for 
mining purposes." f 

But whatever New Mexico may have yielded in 
precious metals prior to 1848 is immaterial here, 
for until then it belonged to Old Mexico, and its 

* "The Production of the Precious Metals," by W. P. Blake, pp. 
43 and 44. 

f " Commerce of the Prairies," by Josiah Gregg, i. 164. 



48 THE SILVER COUNTRY, 

product is included in the estimate of that repub- 
lic on a prior page. 

Estimating the product of New Mexico, in the 
same way we did that of Arizona, the following 
result is reached as the total of silver and gold : 

1848-1868 $2,500,000 

1868 250,000 

1869 500,000 

1870 500,000 

1871 500,000 

1872 500,000 

1873 500,000 

1874 500,000 

1875 325,000 

Total, 1848-1876 $6,075,000 

PRODUCT OF SILVER AND GOLD OF UTAH, 
I 848-I 876. 

The mines of Utah were not worked in any ex- 
tensive manner until 1868, although silver was dis- 
covered in 1863.* Taking the products of this Ter- 
ritory from the annual reports of the Commissioner 
of Mining Statistics for the period 1870 to 1876, and 
prior to that period Prof. Raymond's estimate, as 
given elsewhere,f we have a total product of sil- 
ver and gold as follows : 

* Paper on Utah in American Cyclopaedia. f Idem. 



ITS WEALTH IA r SILVER AND GOLD. 49 

I868-1869 $600,000 

1870 1,300,000 

1 871 2,300,000 

I872 2,445,284 

1873 3778.200 

I874 3,9II,6oi 

•1875 3,137,688 

Total, 1848-1876 $17,472,773 

PRODUCT OF SILVER AND GOLD OF SOUTHERN 
AND WESTERN COLORADO FROM 1848-1876. 

The product of the whole State, calculated in the 
same manner as the above products of the Terri- 
tories, from 1848 to 1876, was $59,695,708. 

But it is only Southern and Western Colorado 
which come within the limits of New Spain, and 
consequently it is only the products of those por- 
tions of the State which are of importance for the 
purposes of this work. 

The larger portion of Grand County, the western 
half of Summit, most of Lake, the Ute Indian 
Reservation, all of Saguache, La Plata, Hinsdale, 
Conejo, Rio Grande, Costilla, Las Animas, Huer- 
fana, the southern half of Fremont, and Pueblo, 
and the southern third of Bent counties come with- 
in the limits of New Spain. According to the re- 
port for 1874 of the United States Commissioner 



5o 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



of Mining Statistics, the product of precious metal 
of Colorado, by counties, was as follows : 

Clear Creek County $2,203,947 



Gilpin 

Park 

Boulder 

Lake 

Summit 



1,631,863 
59 6 >392 
539>870 
223,503 
126,188 



Southern counties 40,620 



Total $5,362,383 

It appears from the above that the Spanish por- 
tion of Colorado has, in the past, yielded very little 
of the annual products of silver and gold. But it 
is possible that in the future it will furnish the 
greater portion of the precious metals, for the won- 
derfully rich mines of the San Juan region in the 
southwestern portion of the State are about receiv- 
ing a suitable development.* 

TOTAL PRODUCT OF SILVER AND GOLD OF THE 
SOUTHWEST OF NEW SPAIN — 1 52 1-1 876. 

The above estimates of the products of New 
Spain, prior to its division of territory in 1848, 
and of its various divisions since 1848, make the 
following sum total of products of silver and gold : 

* United States Commissioner's Report for 1874, p. 358. 



ITS WE A ITU IN SI TVER AND GOID. 51 

Mexico, 1521-1804 $2,027,952,000 

1 804-1848 768,188,420 

" 1848-1876 702,000,000 

California, 1 848-1 876 1,064,628,502 

Nevada, 1848-1876 293,233,910 

Arizona, 1 848-1 876 7,962,000 

New Mexico, 1848-1876 6,075,000 

Utah, 1848-1876. 17,472,773 

Total of New Spain, 1 521-1876, $4,887,512,605 

To the above is to be added the product of silver 
and gold in the Southwest during the previous 
nine hundred years of Toltec and Aztec civiliza- 
tion, wealth, and luxury. If the reader thinks the 
total of that product is equal to the amount pro- / 
duced during the three hundred and twenty-five 
years since the conquest of Mexico in 1521, he 
will have to add about one thousand millions more. 

PROGRESS OF MINING IN THE SOUTHWEST. 

The amount of coinage for different periods, al- 
though a little less than the amount of products of 
silver and gold, may serve as well to indicate the 
progress of the mining industry of the South- 
west. 

The registered coinage of silver and gold of New 
Spain, as given by Humboldt, for the period 1521 



52 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



to 1800, by Ward for the period 1800 to 1825, and 
by Blake for the period 1825 to 1848, is as follows :* 

v Amount of Average An- 

Coinage. nual Coinage. 

1521-1548 $40,500,000 $1,500,000 

1548-1690 374,000,000 2,647,887 

1690-1700 43,871,335 4,387,133 

1700-1710 51,731,034 5,173,103 

1710-1720 65,747,027..... 6,574,702 

1720-1730 84,153,223 -... 8,415,322 

1730-1740 90,529,730 9,052,973 

1740-1750 111,855,040 11,185,504 

1750-1760 125,750,094 12,575,009 

1760-1770 112,828,860 11,282,886 

1770-1780... 165,181,729 16,518,172 

1780-1790 193,504,554 19,350,455 

1790-1800 231,080,214 23,108,021 

1800-1810 226,285,711 22,628,571 

1810-1825 124,560,386 8,304,025 

1825-1848 284,499,853 12,369,558 

It will be observed that from the conquest in the 
year 1521, down to 1810, when the native Mexican 
priest, Hidalgo, attempted a revolution against the 
merciless rule of the Spanish, the development of 
the mines was a steady and continuous growth, 
with but one or two slight exceptions ; that during 
the last decade of the last century, and the first 
decade of the present century, the mining industry 

* Humboldt's "New Spain," iii. 294 and 413-420. "Mexico in 
1827," by H. G. Ward, i. 286. '« Production of the Precious Metals," 
by Blake, p. 316. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



53 



had reached a high degree of development. This 
was just prior to the attempt in 1810 by Hidalgo 
and others to establish the independence of Mexico. 

Ward attributes the steady increase of the pro- 
duct of the mines, up to 1810, to the influence of 
the liberal laws and regulations, in regard to min- 
ing, prescribed by the Spanish authorities. But 
mark the falling-off for the fifteen years following 
this period, including the attempted revolution 
by Hidalgo, and the successful revolution of 1821, 
under the lead of Iturbide, also a native Mexican. 

Ward says of this period : " After the great con- 
vulsions of 1810, 181 1, and 1812, nothing remained 
to denote, amidst the general wreck, the epoch of 
splendor which had so immediately preceded it." * 

The above table of coinage being arranged ac- 
cording to shorter periods than those we have 
chosen to represent the products, gives a clearer 
idea of the progress of mining operations in Mex- 
ico, prior to 1848, than the average of annual pro- 
ducts. But to illustrate the progress of the whole 
of New Spain, both prior and subsequent to 1848, 
a statement of the average annual products is the 
most convenient manner of reaching the result. 

Using the totals of products of silver and gold 
of New Spain, as given in the preceding pages, the 
average annual products are as follows : 

* Ward, i. 400. 



54 THE SILVER COUNTRY, 

1521-1804(283 years) $7,165,908 

1 804-1 848 (44 years) 17,458,827 

1 848-1 876 (28 years) 74,691,863 

PRODUCTS OF SILVER AND GOLD OF THE SOUTH- 
WEST COMPARED WITH EACH OTHER. 

Humboldt said at the commencement of the 
present century : " We may reckon that in times 
of peace, when the want of mercury does not 
impede the process of amalgamation, the annual 
produce of New Spain is, in silver, 22,000,000 of 
piasters; in gold, 1,000,000 of piasters."* Danson 
gives the separate products of New Spain for the 
period 1492 to 1804 f as- 
Silver $1,948,952,000 

Gold 79,000,000 

For the period 1804 to 1848, Danson estimates 
the separate products of Mexico to be — 

In silver $685,418,247 

In gold 82,770,173 

The estimates of the separate products of gold 
and silver of Mexico are, for the next period, and 
as given on previous pages of this chapter, as fol- 
lows : 

* Humboldt, iii. 147. 

f Journal of Statistical Society of London, 1851, p. 19. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 55 

1 848-1 868, silver $420,000,000 

gold 50,000,000 

And for the period 

1 868-1 876, silver , . . . $208,000,000 

gold 24,000,000 

The product of the precious metals of California 
are usually considered, and estimated, as all gold, 
hence for this State there is no comparison to be 
made. The gold product, as previously given, is 
for the period 1 848-1 876, $1,064,628,502. 

Nevada, in marked contrast, is a silver-producing 
State, but its product is not all silver.* Raymond 
divides the total product of that State, for the year 
1875, as follows : f 

Silver $28,332,151 

Gold 12,146,218 

This division makes the silver product about 70 
per cent, of the total product, or, to be exact, 6g T ^ w 
per cent. 

The whole product of precious metals of this 
State, from the first working of the mines to 1874, 
inclusive, is separated in an estimate given in the 

* There seems to be a conflict of opinion in regard to the proper 
division of the product of Nevada. The forthcoming report of the 
Silver Commission will doubtless review in detail the ratio of silver 
to gold. 

f See Commissioner's Report for 1875, chapter on Nevada. 



56 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

paper on Nevada, in the American Cyclopaedia, 
which estimate is credited to Professor Raymond. 
The silver, as there given, is 74 T V 4 o per cent, of the 
combined products. As this is a greater percent- 
age of silver than given for the single year 1875, we 
will divide the product of Nevada for the whole 
period to 1876 as follows: 74 per cent, silver and 
26 per cent. gold. We have as the result : 

Silver $2 16,993,093 

Gold 76,240,817 

Relying upon the same authorities for an esti- 
mate of the separate products of Utah, for the year 
1875, an< 3 also for the period prior to that year, 
commencing with the first development in 1868, we 
have the following as the result : 

1868-1876, silver $15,925,485 

gold 1,547.292 

It is impossible to give a satisfactory division of 
the products of New Mexico or of Arizona. In 
fact the authorities widely differ in regard to the 
amount of the combined products. But the small 
amounts of the products of those undeveloped Ter- 
ritories since 1848, will not, if inaccurately stated, 
make any essential difference in the general com- 
parison of silver and gold of the whole of New 
Spain for the long period 1521 to 1876. New Mex- 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



57 



ico was formerly considered a gold-producing State, 
but for the year 1875 the Commissioner of Mining 
Statistics considers the product nearly all silver. 
Arizona produces both gold and silver. It may not 
be far from correct to combine the products of pre- 
cious metals of the two Territories, and estimate the 
same as half silver and half gold. We have, then, as 
the separate products of the two Territories for the 
period 1 848-1 876 — 

Silver $7,018,500 

Gold 7,018,500 

A summary of the above gives as the result of 
the comparison the following: 

Silver Product. Gold Product. 

Mexico 1492-1804 $1,948,952,000 $79,000,000 

" 1804-1848 685,418,247 82,770,173 

" 1 848-1868 420,000,000 50,000,000 

" 1868-1876 208,000,000 24,000,000 

California 1848-1876 1,064,628,502 

Nevada 1848-1876 216,993,093 76,240,817 

Utah 1848-1876 15,925,485 1,547,292 

Ariz, and New Mex 1848-1876 7,018,500 7,018,500 

Total $3,502,307,325 $1,385,205,284 

The totals show that of the precious metals pro- 
duced by the Southwest, from its first settlement 
by Cortez, down to the beginning of the year 1876, 
7 i t ( V P er cent-* or nearly tliree- fourths, was silver. 



58 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

PRODUCT OF SILVER AND GOLD OF THE SOUTH- 
WEST COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE WORLD. 

Perhaps no more carefully prepared estimate of 
the world's product of silver and gold can be found 
than Wilson's estimate, from the discovery of Amer- 
ica, in 1492. to the commencement of 1868. Of 
course it is impossible to give the products of the 
uncivilized portion of the world. Wilson's esti- 
mate includes America, Europe, Asiatic Russia, 
Australia, New Zealand, and portions of Northern 
Africa.* The following estimate of the world's pro- 
duct of silver and gold from 1868 to 1876 is from 
the " Journal des Economistes," quoted in the elab- 
orate Report of the Select Committee of Parlia- 
ment, in 1876, on the depreciation of silver.f The 
amount of silver and gold produced in the world 
since the discovery of America is as follows : 

1492-1868 $11,766,825,889 

1868-1876 1,345,000,000 

Total $13,111,825,889 

We have taken the product of the world from 
1492, as nearly all statistics of the world's products 

* Report of Commissioner of General Land Office for 1867, p. 
213. 

f Report from the Select Committee on Depreciation of Silver, p. 
140 of Appendix. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



59 



of precious metals are arranged according to cer- 
tain periods, one of which invariably begins with 
the discovery of America. But New Spain's sta- 
tistics begin with 1 521, so in the following compari- 
son the world has the advantage by twenty-nine 
years. The comparison shows that New Spain 
produced thirty-seven per cent., or considerably 
over one-third of the silver and gold of the whole 
world. 

PRODUCT OF SILVER AND GOLD OF MEXICO SINCE 
1848, COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE TERRI- 
TORY CEDED BY HER TO THE UNITED STATES. 

Referring to the statistics on previous pages, we 
find the total product of silver and gold of Mexico, 
from 1848 to 1876, to be $702,000,000, and the total 
product of the territory ceded by her to the United 
States, in 1848 and 1853, was, for the same period, 
$1,389,372,185. In other words, the territory ceded 
by Mexico has, since 1848, yielded twice as much 
silver and gold as the territory she retained. 

PRODUCT, SINCE 1 848, OF SILVER AND GOLD OF 
THE TERRITORY ACQUIRED FROM MEXICO, 
COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE REST OF THE 
UNITED STATES. 

Referring again to the statistics above given on 
previous pages, we find the total product of silver 



60 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

and gold, from 1848 to 1876, of the various States 
and Territories of the acquisitions from Mexico in 
1848 and 1853, was $1,389,372,185. The product 
of the whole United States, according to Raymond, 
is, from 1848 to 1876, $1,574,045,802.* Deducting 
from that total the amount of the product of the 
territory acquired from Mexico, and there is left, 
as the product of the rest of the United States, 
$184,673,617. In other words, over seven-eighths 
of the silver and gold of the whole United States 
from 1848 to 1876 was produced by the territory 
acquired from Mexico. Who will say that our in- 
vestment was not a profitable one? 

SILVER PRODUCT OF THE SOUTHWEST, OR NEW 
SPAIN, COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE WHOLE 
WORLD. 

Baron Humboldt wrote, about the beginning of 
the present century, " The two millions and a half 
of marcs of silver annually exported from Vera 
Cruz are equal to two-thirds of the silver annually 
extracted from the whole globe." \ 

But what portion of the world's product has the 
Southwest furnished since the discovery of Amer- 
ica, and why is the Southwest entitled to be called 
the silver country? 

* See Raymond's Annual Report, viii. 544, and also Annual Re- 
ports for years 1874, 1865. 

f Humboldt's " New Spain," iii. 146. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 6 1 

The following estimates of the world's yield of 
silver, from 1492 to 1868, are from the statistics of 
Wilson ; and by the world is meant America, 
Europe, Asiatic Russia, Australia, New Zealand, 
and portions of Northern Africa, those being the 
only portions whose products can be ascertained.* 
The estimate of the world's silver, from 1868 to 
1876, is that given by the United States Bureau of 
Statistics, as published in the British report on the 
depreciation of silver, f 

The statistics of the silver of New Spain are 
compiled from the estimates and percentages on 
the preceding pages of this chapter. 

y Silver Product Silver Product 

of the World. of New Spain. 

1492-1804 $4,455,130,000 $1,948,952,000 

1804-1848 1,223,781,674 685,418,247 

1848-1868 971,060,000 .... 489,100,000 

1868-1876 582,100,000 378,837,078 

Total, 1492-1876. . $7,232,071,674 $3,502,307,325 

It will be observed that in the above table the 
product of New Spain is given commencing with 
1492, whereas the tables on previous pages give 
the product of New Spain as commencing in 1 521. 
But the mines of New Spain were not worked by 
the Spanish until the conquest in 1 521, hence it is 

* Report of Commissioner of General Land Office for 1867, p. 213. 
f See Appendix to that Report, p. 140. 



62 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

fair to call this the total product from the date of 
the discovery of America; and as all estimates of 
the world's products are for certain periods, one 
of which always commences with 1492, it is im- 
possible to arrange the comparison in any other 
way. 

Still more striking is the comparison of the silver 
products of the world and New Spain for the year 
1875, or the last year of the above table. The 
British report on the " Depreciation of Silver" 
gives, in the appendix, three different estimates, 
each from a different source, of the world's pro- 
duct of silver for 1875. One, in a paper submitted 
by Sir Hector Hay, is .£16,100,000 sterling, or 
$77,924,000 ; * a second, from the Bureau of Sta- 
tistics of the United States, is $77,700,000 ;f and 
a third, taken from the " Journal des Economistes," 
is $62,000,000. % The silver product of Mexico, for 
1875, according to the United States Consul-Gen- 
eral at the city of Mexico, " may safely be esti- 
mated at $27,000,000." § Raymond estimates the 
silver of Nevada, for 1875, as we have already 
stated on a previous page, to be $28,332,151 ; and 
he estimates the silver of Utah, for 1875, to be 

* Report on the Depreciation of Silver, Appendix, p. 25. 
\ Idem, p. 146. 
% Idem, p. 140. 

§ "Commercial Relations of United States with Foreign Coun- 
tries for 1875," p. 1 120. 



ITS WEAL TH IN SIL VER AND GOLD. 63 

$2,955,922.* Raymond estimates the silver pro- 
duct of New Mexico, for 1875, to be $225,ooo.f 
Calling the silver product of Arizona, for 1875, 
$375,000, which is one-half of its total product of 
silver and gold, and combining the above products, 
we have the total silver product of New Spain for 
1875. Selecting the middle one of the above esti- 
mates of the world's product, which is that of the 
Bureau of Statistics, and comparing it with that of 
New Spain, we have the following result as the sil- 
ver product for 1875 : 

The World $77,700,000 

New Spain 58,888,073 

The above comparisons show that the Southwest, 
from the conquest in 1521 to 1804, yielded forty- 
three per cent, of the silver product of the whole 
world; % from 1804 to 1848, fifty-six percent, of the 
silver product of the world; from 1848 to 1868, 
fifty per cent, of the silver product of the world ; 
from 1868 to 1875, sixty-five per cent, of the silver 
product of the world ; and during the year 1875, 
seventy-five per cent, of the silver product of the 
world. 

* See Report of Mining Commissioner for 1875, chapter on Utah. 

f Idem, chapter on New Mexico. 

% The percentage of New Spain would be slightly increased for 
this period if we could compare it with the world from 1521, in- 
stead of giving the world the advantage by twenty-nine years by 
commencing at 1492. 



64 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

When the advance of railways makes possible a 
development of the silver mines of Arizona, New 
Mexico, and the Northern States of Old Mexico, 
it is fair to presume the silver product of the South- 
west will compare still more favorably with that of 
the world. 

MINERAL WEALTH OF THE BORDER STATES. 

There is an abundance of testimony to prove 
that the richest mines of the republic of Mexico 
are in the Northern States near the border; and 
the testimony is equally abundant showing that the 
portion of New Spain lying within the United 
States, and just north of the Mexican border, ranks 
among the richest in silver and gold. 

Ward's official report to the British Government, 
made after several years' residence in Mexico as His 
Majesty's Charge cT Affaires, is, next to Humboldt's 
work, the most thorough and comprehensive review 
of the resources of New Spain, which has ever 
been published. It says of the States south of the 
border line : 

" The States of Durango, Sonora, Chihuahua, 
and Sinaloa, contain an infinity of mines hitherto 
but little known, but holding out, wherever they 
have been tried, a promise of riches superior to 
anything that Mexico has yet produced."* 

* Ward's " Mexico in 1827," i. 452. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 65 

Of the mines north of the border, he said : 
" I see enough in these records of Arizona to 
warrant the supposition (confirmed as it is by the 
facts and appearances mentioned in the preceding 
pages) that the hitherto unexplored regions in 
the North of Mexico contain mineral treasures 
which, as discoveries proceed, are likely to make 
the future produce of the country infinitely ex- 
ceed the amount that has been hitherto drawn 
from the comparatively poorer districts of the 
South."* 

The report of the Mexican Committee on Mining 
Taxes, made in 1868, says: 

" The mineral wealth of the States of Durango, 
Sonora, and Chihuahua is greater than all the rest 
of our territory, from certain indications : and it 
will be developed as soon as settlers are protected 
from the scalping-knives of the savages." f 
Another standard authority says of Sinaloa : 
" The State of Sinaloa is said to be literally cov- 
ered with silver mines." * * * " Scientific ex- 
plorers, who visited the Sinaloa mines in 1872, re- 
ported that those on the Pacific slopes would be 
the great source of supply of silver for the next 
century." J 

* Idem, p. 460. 

f " Production of the Precious Metals," by Blake, p. 320. 

% Paper on Mexico, in American Cyclopaedia. 



66 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Dr. Wislizenus, in his work on Northern Mex- 
ico, testifies that " the silver mines of the State of 
Chihuahua, though worked for centuries, seem to be 
inexhaustible. The discovery of new mines is but 
a common occurrence, and, attracted by them, the 
mining population moves generally from one place 
to another without exhausting the old ones." * * * 
" New Mexico seems to be as rich in gold ore as 
Chihuahua is in silver; but yet less capital and 
greater insecurity have prevented their being 
worked to a large extent." * 

J. Ross Browne, who was the first United States 
Commissioner of Mining Statistics, reported in 
1868, in regard to the States immediately south of 
the Pacific border line, as follows : 

" Durango is very rich in silver, but its wealth 
was not known until just before the revolution, and 
there has been comparatively little exploration 
since. ' This State, like Sonora and Chihuahua, has 
suffered severely from Apache incursions. The 
city of Durango, one hundred and ninety-five miles 
northwest of Zacatecas, had only eight thousand 
inhabitants in 1783; but in that year Zambrano, 
the great miner of that region, discovered the mines 
of Guarisamey, and Durango soon trebled its popu- 
lation. In twenty-four years he extracted $30,000- 
000 from his claims ; and a multitude of mines 

* Dr. Wislizenus's " Tour of Northern Mexico," p. 83. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 6y 

were opened, so that the average yield of the State 
was estimated to be $5,000,000." * 

Some very valuable testimony in regard to the 
mineral wealth of Santa Eulalia, in the State of 
Chihuahua, is to be found in the paper read before 
the Royal Geographical Society of London, in 1859, 
by Charles Sevin, F.R.G.S., who had visited Mexico 
to see " how far the mineral wealth of these regions 
can be worked to advantage with English capital." 
He says : " In a space of two square leagues all the 
mountains of Santa Eulalia contain silver ; more 
than two hundred mines have been worked in these 
confines, and upwards of fifty of them have been 
sunk to a depth of two hundred yards. Some of 
these are so extensive that one whole day will not 
suffice to see the different parts of one alone. With 
regard to the immense amount of silver extracted 
from the mines of Santa Eulalia, the following 
statements will be found interesting. At the most 
flourishing time a contribution was raised of two 
grains of silver from every marc extracted, for the 
purpose of building two churches; one at the city 
of Chihuahua, the other at Santa Eulalia. They 
were built in a few years. The cost of that of 
Chihuahua was $600,000, of that of Santa Eulalia 
$150,000; and a surplus of $150,000 of the money 

* " Resources of the Pacific States," p. 648 



68 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

collected in this manner remained. The result of 
the contribution therefore amounted to $900,000, 
which corresponds to an amount of 145,000 marcs 
of silver, worth at the real value of that metal $145,- 
000,000, extracted from the mines of Santa Eulalia 
in the course of a few years. It cannot be sup- 
posed that the produce of these mines, rich as they 
were up to the last operations, suddenly stopped 
by the expulsion of the Spaniards, should have re- 
tained the same ratio at all periods. However, the 
whole amount of silver which they have yielded, 
though it is to be divided over a number of about 
one hundred and thirty years, will be found very 
great. In the year 1833, a census of this whole 
amount was made, and it was found to have been 
43,000,000 marcs of silver, or $430,000,000."* 

Wilson, the historian of Mexico, in one of his 
three works on Mexico, says : " We have the fol- 
lowing record in evidence of the masses of silver 
extracted at Arazuma. Don Domingo Asmendi 
paid duties on a piece of virgin silver which 
weighed 275 lbs. The king's attorney (fiscal) 
brought suit for the duties on several other pieces, 
which together weighed 4,033 lbs. Also for the re- 
covery, as a curiosity, and therefore the property 
of the king, of a certain piece of silver of the weight 

* Journal of Royal Geographical Society for i860, p. 33. 



ITS WEAL TH IN SIL VER AND GOLD 



6 9 



of 2,700 lbs. This is probably the largest piece of 
pure silver ever found in the world." * 

Arazuma, above alluded to, is in the present Ter- 
ritory of Arizona, and probably in the southern 
portion, which was part of the Gadsden purchase 
of 1853. 

Ward, the British minister to Mexico, says in 
his report that he saw the correspondence in re- 
gard to those masses of virgin silver, that he ob- 
tained a certified copy of the decree, and that its 
authenticity was unquestionable. He does not ac- 
cept the whole of the facts recorded as correct. 
Nevertheless, the record satisfied him that the 
silver mines of Arizona were richer than those 
farther south. f 

Baron Humboldt says that native silver " has 
been found in considerable masses, sometimes 
weighing more than two hundred kilogrammes, j 
in the seams of Batopilas, in New Biscay." § 

New Biscay was the same as the former inten- 
dancy of Durango, which embraced what are now 
the border States of Durango and Chihuahua. 
Batopilas is in Chihuahua. J 

A recent authority on Arizona gives the follow- 

* •' Mexico and Its Religion," by R. A. Wilson, p. 387. 

t Ward's "Mexico in 1S27," ii. 137. 

\ Four hundred and forty-four lbs. (avoirdupois). 

§ Humboldt's " New Spain," iii. 157. 

I Idem, ii. 237. 



JO . THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

ing significant facts and figures in regard to the 
great mineral wealth of that territory : 

The number of " mines located and recorded in 
the Territory, which was obtained from the county 
registers of each county, excepting the County of Mo- 
.have, which is given much below the actual number, 
was, on the first day of October, 1876, as follows: 

Yavapai County 7,298 

Pima County 975 

Maricopa County 200 

Yuma County 580 

Pinal County 552 

Mohave County . . 2,000 

Total 11,605"* 

Prof. Raymond, the United States Commis- 
sioner, says, in his official report for 1869, of an- 
other border State: " Indications of placer gold 
are very general all over New Mexico ; and I be- 
lieve that with the introduction of hydraulics this 
interest will become a very prominent one in the 
future." * * * " Whenever railroads shall 
traverse this country its mines will be of great 
value, as they will possess then every facility for 
successful working. "f 

* "Arizona as It Is ; or, The Coming Country," by H. C. Hodge, 
P- 135. 

f See Report for 1869, pp. 408 and 414. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



71 



Such is the testimony of the leading writers on 
the wealth of the border States. We might add 
almost a volume more to the same effect. But 
enough has been cited on this point to satisfy the 
most skeptical, and we will now consider why these 
remarkable mines are not adding their stores of 
wealth to the world's supply of precious metals. 

PRESENT CONDITION AND WANTS OF THE MINING 

INDUSTRY. 

Those portions of New Spain, such as California 
and Nevada, which have been so fortunate as to 
receive a thrifty American civilization, the aid of 
railways, and a partial development of their re- 
sources, are adding each year large contributions to 
the world's supply of silver and gold, and are fur- 
nishing work and good pay to the laboring classes. 
Old Mexico, another portion of New Spain, suffers 
for want of better government and a better civil- 
ization. Nevertheless, the interior of that republic 
is producing each year large sums of silver. The 
annual yield of Mexico, as a whole, is now nearly 
as large as during the best days of Spanish rule; 
but still it is not half what it should be. It is the 
centre of New Spain, or the rich border States, 
where the mining industry is prostrate. Anarchy, 
Indian raids, and lack of railroads south of the 



72 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

line, and Apache raids and lack of transportation 
north of the line, have well-nigh ruined this mag- 
nificent border country. Its development has never 
recovered from the effects of the check it received 
at the time Mexico entered into the struggle to 
throw off Spanish authority in 1810. 

The contrast between the former flourishing con* 
dition of the Santa Eulalia mines, which are above 
described, and their present prostration is well 
described by Sevin, who said in 1859: " Since the 
interruption of the regular mining operations in 
1833, the inhabitants of Santa Eulalia have never- 
theless almost entirely existed upon the produce 
of the unscientific and disconnected operations 
which are carried on in nearly all the abandoned 
mines of this country. In this manner these mines 
have continued to support a population of one 
thousand five hundred souls in this little town, and 
have contributed also to the maintenance of a sur- 
rounding scattered population, which supplies the 
miners with wood, coal, provisions, etc."* In the 
palmy days of the mining industry under the 
Spanish, the city of Chihuahua had a population of 
over seventy thousand inhabitants. Now it has 
but twelve thousand. f 

The United States consul at Guaymas, in a com- 

* Journal of Royal Geographical Society for i860, p. 33. 
\ Paper on Chihuahua in American Cyclopaedia. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 73 

munication to the State Department in 1873, said 
of the condition of affairs in Sonora: " The Indian 
plague of Apache raids from Arizona still con- 
tinues, and during the first quarter of the year was 
particularly severe. In that time one hundred and 
fifty persons — men, women, and children, Mexi- 
cans—were killed."* Wilson said about 1851, of 
this same border State : " The capitalists of Mexico 
will not invest their means in developing the re- 
sources of Sonora, and in consequence the finest 
country in the world is fast receding to a state of 
nature." f 

Just before the late civil war in the United States 
a large amount of capital was attracted by the min- 
ing industry of Arizona, and an effort was made to 
develop its great silver mines. Costly machinery 
was taken over the plains, and operations were 
fairly under way when the outbreak of the war 
caused the Government troops to be recalled from 
the Territory, and the Apache Indians and Mex- 
icans immediately improved the opportunity to 
make havoc of the costly works at the mines. Soon 
after this, in the year 1863, J. Ross Browne visited 
Arizona, and he says of the rich Heintzelman mine 
which we have described above : " At the time of our 

* See Report for 1873 on " Commercial Relations of the United 
States with Foreign Countries," p. 831. 
f " Mexico and its Religion," p. 388. 

4 



74 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



visit it was silent and desolate, a picture of utter 
abandonment. The adobe houses were fast falling 
into ruins ; the engines were no longer at work ; 
the rich piles of ore lying in front of the shafts had 
been sacked and robbed by marauding Mexicans ; 
nothing was to be seen but wreck and ruin." * 

The disturbed condition of the border States 
during the past few years is too fresh in the minds 
of the reader to need recital here. Until anarchy 
is supplanted by good government no adequate 
development may be expected. But north of the 
border, in Arizona and New Mexico, during the 
past few years, the danger from Apache raids has 
not been as great as it was during the late civil war. 
And regardless of the fact that facilities for trans- 
portation are very incomplete, some little progress 
has been made in the mining industry. The report 
of the Mining Commissioner for 1874 says of Ari- 
zona : " From the southern portion of this Territory 
have come frequent reports during the year just 
past of the revival of a once flourishing mining in- 
dustry, which had, however, for years been actually 
wiped out of existence by the Apache Indians." f 

The report of the United States Mining Commis- 
sioner for 1875 contains a review of the mining in- 
dustry of Arizona, which says : " The past year has 

* " Adventures in the Apache Country," by J. Ross Browne, p. 266. 
f See Report for 1874, p. 389. 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 



75 



witnessed an increased attention to mining and the 
investment of some new capital ; but the distances 
both from the Pacific and the Atlantic States are 
such, and many of the roads to the mineral districts 
are so heavy, or rough, that no expeditions and 
economical movement of ores, machinery, or miners, 
no working or shipment of low-grade ores, and 
no influx of capital (even from California) can be 
looked for, and consequently no extensive or very 
important operations can be carried on until, at 
least, a trunk railroad crosses the Territory." * 

Regardless of the overwhelming testimony prov- 
ing the great mineral wealth of Arizona, New Mex- 
ico, Chihuahua, Durango, and Sinaloa, and of the 
fact that there are some indications of a new devel- 
opment north of the border, the late annual re- 
ports of the United States Commissioner fail to 
show very large products in New Mexico and Ari- 
zona. The mines are stagnant at a time when the 
science of mining has become almost perfect, when 
every facility, in the shape of improved and effec- 
tive machinery, is awaiting the assistance of capital. 
There is but one remedy for the present lack of 
progress, and that is, suitable transportation for 
troops, for mining machinery, and for the advance 
of a thrifty civilization. 

* See Report for 1875, p. 341, 



7 6 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



THE FUTURE PRODUCTS OF SILVER AND GOLD 
OF THE SOUTHWEST. 

Great as were the treasures which the Spanish 
unlocked from the mines, they did little more, say 
the standard authorities, than work the surface 
ores. When the mine became too deep and the 
labor difficult they abandoned it and moved else- 
where, to repeat at some other mine the same super- 
ficial process. Still less thorough was the working 
of the mines by the Mexicans after they declared 
their independence from Spain. But one portion 
of New Spain has received the blessings of a pro- 
gressive civilization, and the wonderful develop- 
ment of the mines of California and Nevada, since 
they became a part of the United States in .1848, 
is an indication of what we may expect as the 
future products of the whole Southwest. Califor- 
nia alone, from 1848 to 1876, produced more pre- 
cious metals than the whole republic of Mexico, or 
$1,064,628,502 against Mexico's $702,000,000. The 
wonderful progress of this State with an energetic 
people is a fair illustration of the possibilities of 
Mexico with the same aids to advancement. Se- 
vin, who visited Mexico in 1856, and, as we have 
above stated, reported his observations to the 
Royal Geographical Society in 1859, said: " ^ 1S 
generally known and admitted that the mineral 



ITS WEALTH IN SILVER AND GOLD. 77 

wealth of the country hitherto explored is but a 
drop in the ocean compared with the virgin mines 
which exist in every direction, only wanting capital 
and enterprise for their development/' * Baron 
Humboldt expressed a similar opinion at the com- 
mencement of the present century, and at a time 
when the annual product of silver and gold of 
New Spain averaged about $26,959,357. He said: 
" The opinion that New Spain produces only, per- 
haps, the third part of the precious metals which it 
could supply under happier political circumstances, 
has been long entertained by all the intelligent per- 
sons who inhabit the principal districts of mines of 
that country, and is formally announced in a me- 
moir presented by the deputies of the body of 
miners to the king in 1774, a production drawn up 
with great wisdom and knowledge of local circum- 
stances." f 

Not only has nature been very liberal in the min- 
eral endowment of New Spain, but she has stored 
the vast quantities of silver and gold in accessible 
places. Humboldt says: " A remarkable advan- 
tage for the progress of national industry arises 
from the height at which nature in New Spain has 
deposited the precious metals. In Peru the most 
considerable mines, those of Potosi, Pasco, and 

* Journal of the Royal Geographical Society for i860, p. 52. 
f Humboldt's "New Spain," iii. 334, 335- 



78 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Chota, are immensely elevated near the region of 
perpetual snow." * The table-lands of Mexico, 
which are the principal depositories of the trea- 
sures, possess a mild climate, which does not in- 
terfere with agreeable and successful work. One 
thing, however, is wanting, and that is, develop- 
ment. When the whole of New Spain receives that 
blessing, we may expect the Southwest will not 
only continue to surpass the rest of the world com- 
bined, but even eclipse its own brilliant record in 
the production of silver. 

* Humboldt, i. 70, 71, 



OTHER WEALTH. 



79 



CHAPTER III. 

OTHER WEALTH THAN SILVER AND' 
GOLD. 

Of one portion of New Spain, Daniel Webster 
said in the United States Senate in 1850: "lam 
sure that everybody has become satisfied that al- 
though California may have a very great seaboard, 
and a large city or two, yet that the agricultural 
products of the whole surface now are not, and 
never will be, equal to one-half part of those of the 
State of Illinois ; no, nor yet a fourth, or perhaps a 
tenth part." * 

Yet with a partial development of its agriculture 
the wheat crop of California in 1875 exceeded in 
value that of Illinois and every other State of the 
Union ; its product of barley was in value four 
times that of Illinois, and greater than that of every 
other State ; its wool product was in value nearly 
double that of Illinois, and greater than the yield 
of every other State except Ohio ; its wheat pro- 
duct was more than ten million dollars in excess of 

* See Speech on Public Lands, etc., of California, in vol. v. of his 
works, p. 398. 



80 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

its gold product ; and in 1876 its wheat crop was in 
value over twelve million dollars in excess of the 
wheat crop of Illinois. 

Texas, another portion of New Spain, although 
comparatively undeveloped, produced in 1875 corn 
exceeding in value the corn products of all the 
New England States and New York combined ; its 
wheat crop, in 1876, was worth over five million 
dollars, and as it has nearly doubled each year since 
1874, its value in the future, when Western Texas 
is developed, will be doubled many times more ; its 
cotton crop, in 1876, was equal to half the amount 
consumed in the whole United States, and greater 
in value than the gold product of California. 

Those who under-estimate the agricultural ca- 
pacity of other parts of the Southwest, and who 
think that silver and gold comprise the sum total 
of its riches, have only to await the advance of 
railways, and a suitable development of New and 
Old Mexico and Arizona for further surprises and 
statistical proof of their delusion. 

Those keen observers of nature — the civilized 
native races — selected the table-lands of Mexico as 
their favorite part of North America for founding 
an empire. They were entirely dependent upon the 
resources of their own land for the necessities of 
life, and could not have maintained for several cen- 
turies a civilization celebrated for luxury unless the 



OTHER WEALTH. 8 1 

agricultural capacities were equal to their require- 
ments. Nor could the table-lands of New Mex- 
ico and Arizona have supported the numerous 
cities and dense population of their semi-civilized 
inhabitants unless the products of the soil were 
great. 

But surprising assertions should be sustained by 
ample authorities, and we will briefly cite some of 
the facts from the official reports of the United 
States Commissioner of Agriculture, and other re- 
liable sources. 

WHEAT. 

In speaking of the table-land in Mexico, extend- 
ing from Queretaro to Leon, Baron Humboldt said, 
at the beginning of the present century : " The 
wheat harvest is thirty-five and forty for one, and 
several great farms can reckon fifty or sixty to one." 
* * * " At Cholula, the common harvest is from 
thirty to forty, but it frequently exceeds from 
seventy to eighty for one. In the valley of Mex- 
ico, the maize yields two hundred, and the wheat 
eighteen or twenty. I have to observe that the 
numbers which I here give have all the accuracy 
which can be desired in so important an object for 
the knowledge of territorial riches. Being eagerly 
desirous of knowing the produce of agriculture 
under the tropics, I procured all the information on 
4* 



82 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

the very spots ; and I compared together the data 
which I was furnished by intelligent colonists who 
inhabited provinces at a distance from one another. 
I was induced to be so much the more precise in 
this operation, as, from having been born in a coun- 
try where grain scarcely produces four or five for 
one, I was naturally more apt, than another, to be 
disposed to suspect the exaggerations of agricultur- 
ists." * Of another part of Mexico he said : " Near 
Zelaya, the agriculturists showed me the enormous 
difference of produce between the lands artificially 
watered and those which are not. The former, 
which receive the water of the Rio Grande, distrib- 
uted by drains into several pools, yield from forty 
to fifty for one ; while the latter, which do not en- 
joy the benefit of irrigation, only yield fifteen or 
twenty." f California was then a part of the king- 
dom of New Spain, and Humboldt includes it in 
his investigations. He said : " In the northern 
extremity of the kingdom, on the coast of New 
California, the produce of wheat is from sixteen to 
seventeen for one, taking the mean term among the 
harvests of eighteen villages for two years. I be- 
lieve that agriculturists will peruse with pleasure 
the detail of these harvests in a country situated 
under the same parallel as Algiers, Tunis, and Pal- 

* Humboldt's " New Spain," ii. 413 and 414. 
f Idem, p. 415. 



OTHER WEALTH. 



83 



estine, between 32 39' and 37 48' of latitude." * 
After setting forth in detail the wheat-growing 
capacity of New Spain, he contrasts the statistics 
with those of other nations as follows : " We shall 
collect into one table the knowledge which we have 
acquired as to the mean produce of the cerealia in 
the two continents. We are not here adducing 
examples of an extraordinary fertility observable 
in a small extent of ground." * * * " But in 
treating of agriculture in general, we speak merely 
of extensive results, of calculations in which the 
total harvest of a country is considered as the mul- 
tiple of the quantity of wheat sown. It will be 
found that this multiple, which may be considered 
as one of the first elements of the prosperity of 
nations, varies in the following manner : five to 
six grains for one in France, according to Lavoisier 
and Neckar." * * * " This is also the mean 
produce in the North of Germany, Poland, and, ac- 
cording to M. Ruhs, in Sweden." * * * " Eight 
to ten grains for one in Hungary, Croatia, and 
Sclavonia, according to the researches of M. Swart- 
ner." * * * " Seventeen grains for one in the 
northern part of Mexico." * * * " Twenty- 
four grains for one in the equinoctial region of 
Mexico." f 

* Idem, p. 419. t Wem, pp. 427-428,.. 



84 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

He says of the quality : " The Mexican wheat is 
of the very best quality ; and it may be compared 
with the finest Andalusian grain " * * * " In 
Mexico the grain is very large, very white, and very 
nutritive, especially in farms where watering is em- 
ployed." * 

A recent writer on California, since it was sepa- 
rated from Mexico in 1848, says: " I was shown in 
one field a unique sight, a ' volunteer crop ' of 
wheat which had sprung of itself in a field unbroken 
and uncultivated from last year's scattered seeds, so 
rich that it would probably average forty to forty- 
five bushels to the acre." f 

The wheat record of California and Texas, for 
the past five years, tends to show how reliable and 
close an observer of the agricultural capacity of the 
great Southwest was Baron Humboldt. The fol- 
lowing tables show the respective rank of the five 
leading wheat States during each of the past five 
years. The estimates are compiled from the an- 
nual reports of the Commissioner of Agriculture : 

1872. 

1. Illinois , $30,394,530 

2. California 28,416,000 

3. Ohio 25,848,260 

* Idem, p. 434. 

f " The New West," by C. L. Brace, p. 232. 



OTHER WEALTH. 

4. Indiana $25,582,920 

5. Wisconsin 22,976,2 10 

1873. 

1. Illinois $31,258,700 

2. California 28,385,280 

3- Iowa 27,334,000 

4. Wisconsin 25,532,340 

5. Indiana 25,415,040 

1874. 

1. California $28,096,200 

2. Ohio 27,032,720 

3. Illinois 25,904,920 

4. Iowa 22,040,200 

5. Indiana 21,931,140 

1875. 

1. California $28,084,000 

2. Illinois 24,843,000 

3. Minnesota 23,392,000 

4. Wisconsin 22,932,000 

5. Iowa 21,158,000 

1876. 

1. California $34,200,000 

2. Ohio 24,795,000 

3. Pennsylvania 23,425,000 

4. Illinois 21,799,200 

5. Indiana 20,400,000 



35 



86 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

The comparison shows that California has been 
ahead since 1873. No other State of the Union 
is likely to dispute her leading position unless it be 
Texas. That State entered the race for wheat 
supremacy at a late day, but her remarkable capa- 
city for doubling her product each year is not likely 
to end until she gets near the head. 

The following table shows the value of the 
wheat crop of Texas for each of the past three 
years: * 

1874 $1,989,900 

1875 3^87,700 

1876 5,130,000 

A commercial writer of the Mississippi Valley, 
attracted by the remarkable wheat-growing capacity 
of California, has recently indulged in some specu- 
lations in regard to " the shifting of the wheat- 
producing belt and its commercial significance." 
After reviewing the great crops of California, the 
increased yield per acre by the aid of irrigation, 
the certainty of the crop owing to the absence of 
rain during harvest-time, the uncertainty of the 
crop in the Mississippi Valley States because of 
rain in harvest-time, he draws the following conclu- 
sion in regard to certain States, which the reader 

* These estimates are also from annual reports of the United 
States Commissioner of Agriculture. 



OTHER WEALTH. 



87 



will observe constitute nearly the same country 
which we have defined to be New Spain, or the 
Southwest, viz. : 

" In view of these things, does it not appear cer- 
tain, as the State of California settles up, and as 
railway facilities are extended to Colorado, New 
Mexico, Old Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and 
Western Texas, the vast belts of country inflicted 
with 'dry' seasons, but just as capable to produce 
wheat, by irrigation, as California, does not it ap- 
pear certain, we again ask, that the surplus wheat 
of the world will ultimately be grown within this 
wonderful area ? " * 

COTTON. 

The production of cotton is not a new element 
of wealth in the Southwest, but is the revival of an 
industry which flourished under the civilized native 
races long before America was known to Europeans. 
All historians agree in regard to the extensive use 
of cotton by the Aztecs ; and what they manufac- 
tured they undoubtedly produced, for they had 
little intercourse with the outside world. The his- 
torian of the " Conquest of Mexico," in describing 
the first presents from Montezuma to Cortez, men- 
tions, as one item, " ten loads of fine cottons. "f 

* Commercial editorial of St. Louis Republican, December 4, 1876. 
f Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico," i. 302. 



88 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Of another embassy, from Montezuma to Cortez, 
he states that slaves brought as presents " curtains, 
coverlets, and robes of cotton, fine as silk, of rich 
and various dyes, interwoven with leather-work 
that rivaled the delicacy of painting. There were 
thirty loads of cotton cloth in addition."* Another 
leading historian of Mexico says : " Cotton was 
among the indigenous products of Mexico at the 
time of the conquest ; and the early adventurers 
not only found it to constitute the common vesture 
of the masses of the people, but also that the most 
delicate and luxurious articles of dress were made 
of it. The Aztecs possessed the art of spinning it 
to an extreme degree of fineness, and of imparting 
to it the beautiful and brilliant dyes for which they 
were celebrated ; but both those mysteries were en- 
tirely lost in the general destruction of aboriginal 
arts and records by the Spaniards. Notwithstand- 
ing the natural anxiety of Spain to furnish her 
colonists with her manufactures, she could never 
prevent the people from weaving and wearing this 
spontaneous product of their soil.f These facts 
indicate very clearly that Mexico was, before the 
days of Spanish rule, an extensive producer of 
cotton. Mexico of the present day produces some 
cotton, manufactures quite extensively, and imports 

* Idem. p. 320. 

\ " Mexico : Aztec, Spanish, and Republican," by B. Mayer, ii. 67. 



OTHER WEALTH. 



8 9 



largely. Mayer says that " in 1843 there were 53 
cotton factories in the republic, with a total of 
131,280 spindles; and it was estimated that, look- 
ing to Mexico alone for the supply, there would be 
an annual deficiency of a large quantity of the raw 
material. This calculation, it must be remembered, 
does not include the consumption of cotton by 
hand-looms, an immense number of which are in 
constant use through the republic."* About fif- 
teen years later the investment of capital in build- 
ings and machinery for the manufacture of cotton 
was, according to Butterfield, $7,372,95 i.f The 
annual consumption of cotton by the factories of 
the three States of Mexico, Puebla, and Queretaro 
was stated, in the official report of the United 
States Consul-General for 1874, to be 11,276,000 
pounds.^ 

But Mexico consumes more cotton than she man- 
ufactures or produces, as the record of imports in 
a subsequent chapter will show. Her largest trade is 
with England, and the largest item of imports is 
invariably cotton. Of her total imports, from all 
countries, for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1873, 
which total was, in value, $29,062,406, over one- 

* Mayer's " Mexico," ii. 68. 

f " United States and Mexican Mail Steamship Line," by Carlos 
Butterfield. 

% " Annual Report on Commercial Relations," p. 831. 



90 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

third, or $10,531,970, was in " cotton stuffs." 
About the adaptability of Mexico to the produc- 
tion of cotton there is no question ; but her mod- 
ern development is delayed. Another portion of 
New Spain, however, is producing enough cotton 
to supply the demand of the whole Southwest. 
Texas, in 1870, was the fifth State of the Union in 
the number of bales produced, which were 350,628. 
In 1876 the product was 690,000 bales.* That 
product placed Texas second in rank among the 
great cotton-producing States, Mississippi being 
the only State yielding a larger crop. If we re- 
duce the product to pounds, by calling the average 
440 pounds to the bale, the result is 303,600,000 
pounds ; and estimating the value of each pound 
at eleven cents (which is the average value of the 
cotton of the whole United States for 1876, as 
given by the United States Commissioner of Agri- 
culture^ we have, as the total value of the crop, 
$33,396,000. In other words, Texas, in 1876, pro- 
duced cotton nearly double in value the gold pro- 
duct of California in 1875. This cotton crop was 
grown upon 1,483,500 acres. As Texas possesses 
in all 175,587,840 acres of land, there seems to be 
almost no limit to the cotton capacity of this great 
and fertile State. The cotton consumption of the 

* See Report of Commissioner of Agriculture for 1876. 
f Idem. 



OTHER WEALTH. 9 1 

whole United States for 1876 is estimated by Ed- 
ward Atkinson to be 600,000,000 pounds.* There- 
fore Texas produced last year fully one-half of the 
amount of cotton consumed in the whole United 
States. 

INDIAN CORN. 

The British minister wrote of Mexico, in 1827: 
" There are few parts either of the Tierra Caliente 
or of the table-land in which maize is not cultivated 
with success. In the low hot grounds upon the 
coast, and on the slope of the Cordillera, its growth 
is more colossal than on the table-land ; but even 
there, at seven and eight thousand feet above the 
level of the sea, its fecundity is such as will hardly 
be credited in Europe." f About twenty years 
later the American historian of Mexico said : " The 
present corn production of Mexico is not accurately 
determined, but it is estimated that it is the chief 
subsistence of at least five million persons, whilst it 
supplies the only fodder for all kinds of domestic 
animals. Its average product must, therefore, be 
not far from at least twenty million bushels." f 
Since 1827 Texas declared her independence ; and 
since the other review of Mexico was written she 

* See his article in New York Herald, April 24, 1877. 
f Ward's " Mexico in 1827," i. 42. 
% Mayer's History of Mexico, ii. 55. 



9 2 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



has made a partial development of her agricultural 
capacity. We will take her corn product of 1875 as 
perhaps a fair illustration of what the capacity of 
New Spain was as a whole. According to the Re- 
port of the United States Commissioner of Agricul- 
ture, Texas, in 1875, produced 31,000,000 bushels 
of corn, the value of which was estimated to be 
$25,730,000, or $8,000,000 larger than the value of 
the gold product of California for the same year. 
As corn has always been one of the staple products 
of New England, a comparison of the products 
may not be uninteresting. We take the number of 
bushels, and the estimated values for the same year 
from the same official report, viz. : 

No. of Bushels. Value. 

Maine 1,300,000 $1,248,000 

New Hampshire.. . 1,650,000 1,551,000 

Vermont 1,720,000 1,616,800 

Massachusetts 1,620,000 1,539,000 

Connecticut 1,775,000 1,775,000 

Rhode Island 290,000 319,000 

New York 19,750,000 14,615,000 

Total 28,105,000 $22,663,800 

We have added the crop of New York State to 
the list, and find that the total value is still over 
three million dollars less than that of the crop of 
undeveloped Texas. 



OTHER WEALTH. 93 



BARLEY. 

Barley is another cereal which yields to profusion 
in New Spain. In proof of this assertion we will 
take the statistics of California for the year 1875, 
in comparison with the leading States of the Union 
in this product : * 

State. Value of Crop. 

1. California , $8,235,500 

2. New York 6,942,000 

3- lo^a 3>339>ooo 

4. Illinois 2,030,000 

5. Wisconsin 2,024,000 

Mexico, as well as the northern portion of New 
Spain, is peculiarly adapted to the successful grow- 
ing of this commodity. As the United States im- 
ported during the year ending June 30, 1876, 
$7,887,886 worth of barley, and nearly as much 
each of the two years preceding, Mexico would do 
well to devote more attention to the production of 
this cereal. 

CATTLE. 

As it is impossible to find the statistics of many 
elements of the wealth of New Spain, as a whole, 
we will continue to consider Texas and California 
as representative States, and give such statistics as 

* See Annual Report of Commissioner of Agriculture. 



Q4 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

their partial development presents. If the reader 
thinks it is unfair to select these portions as repre- 
sentative of the agricultural capacity of the South- 
west, as a whole, we beg leave to again call his at- 
tention to the above quoted under-estimate, twen- 
ty-seven years ago, of the capacity of California. 
That State, in minerals, climate, " dry regions," 
need of irrigation, and in other respects, bears 
great resemblance to Mexico ; and why should not 
Mexico and New Spain, as a whole, bear great re- 
semblance to California in surprising results of an 
agricultural development ? 

According to the United States census of 1870, 
there are three classifications of cattle, viz. : Milch 
cows, working oxen, and other cattle. Comparing 
the statistics of Texas with those of Illinois, the 
great State of the Mississippi Valley, we have the 
following : 

Numbers. 

C Milch cows 428,048 

Texas : \ Working oxen 132,407 

' Other cattle 2,933,588 

C Milch cows 640,321 

Illinois : < Working oxen 19,766 

( Other cattle 1,055,499 

Texas and Illinois are ahead of every other State 
in the numbers of " other cattle," and, as will be 



OTHER WEALTH. 



95 



observed, Texas has three times as many as Illi- 
nois. 

The total number of " other cattle " of the whole 
United States, in 1870, was given as 13,566,005. 
It will be observed that Texas possessed nearly 
one-fourth of this total. 

California, as usual, is prepared for a comparison ; 
and we find in the annual report for 1876 of the 
United States Commissioner of Agriculture, the 
three leading States, in " oxen and other cattle," to 
be as follows in numbers in January, 1877 : 

Texas 3,390,500 

Illinois 1 ,287,000 

California 1,053,500 

Perhaps no other feature of New Mexico, North- 
ern Mexico, and, indeed, of the whole South- 
west, is so well known and admitted by the out- 
side world as its capacity for cattle-raising. It is 
an industry which demands, for an extensive and 
successful development, the same mild winters and 
other advantageous characteristics which the South- 
west possesses. 

SHEEP AND WOOL. 

The Southwest has equal advantages for the rais- 
ing of sheep and wool, though perhaps not as well 
known to the outside world. Drawing upon Cali- 



96 the silver country. 

fornia once more for statistics, and for a sample of 
the capacity of the Southwest as a whole, we find 
that it was in 1870 the second State of the Union 
in rank in the number of sheep, 

Ohio having 4,928,635, and 

California 2,768,187 

These two States were also, in 1870, ahead of 
every other in the wool product, 

Ohio producing 20,539,643 lbs., and 

California 11,391,743 lbs.* 

If we had within reach the statistics of the wool 
products of New Mexico for the past few years, 
we might give another illustration of the adapta- 
bility of the great Southwest to this important and 
profitable industry. 

COFFEE. 

Of the southern portion of New Spain, the Brit- 
ish minister wrote, in 1827 : " Coffee is another of 
the tropical productions for which the soil of Mex- 
ico is admirably adapted." After describing two 
large estates, he said they " contain about 500,000 
coffee plants, 50,000 of which were in full produce 
when I saw them in 1826. The crop of the pre- 
ceding year amounted to 5,000 arrobas, or 125,000 
pounds, which gives two and a half pounds of cof- 

* See United States Census of 1870. 



OTHER WEALTH. gy 

fee as the average production of each plant. I am 
induced to believe that this will be the ordinary- 
produce of good land throughout Mexico; it con- 
siderably exceeds that of Havana, where Humboldt 
gives 860 kilogrammes as the average of a hectare 
of land containing 3,500 plants; but it is a much 
lower estimate than any Mexican planter would 
make, as in many parts of the country from three to 
four pounds are said to be a fair average crop. I 
could not ascertain, however, that this calculation 
was founded upon correct data ; and I do not, 
therefore, give it as one that may be strictly relied 
upon ; but I know one instance of a single coffee 
tree having produced twenty-eight pounds of cof- 
fee in the garden of Don Pablo de la Llane, at 
Cordova, and it is the certainty that this fact is 
unquestionably true that induces me to give, as the 
possible average of good grounds in Mexico, a pro- 
duce more than double that which in the island of 
Cuba is the maximum of the best year in three." * 
Quite an effort has been made, in Mexico, during 
the past few years, to extend this profitable indus- 
try, and, judging from the reports of the United 
States consuls, the effort has been attended with 
marked success. The report of the United States 
Consul-General to the State Department for 1874 

* Ward's " Mexico," i. 72 and 73. 



9 8 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



contains the following : " The value of the coffee 
exported from Vera Cruz to the United States, 
during the year ending June 30, 1874, is $543,352 ; 
and it is not unreasonable to estimate, considering 
the home consumption, that the crop of coffee 
raised last year on the coffee plantations, scattered 
over a limited area between this city and the Gulf 
coast, amounts to over a million of dollars. This 
can be increased to a hundred millions with a com- 
paratively small money capital and a large invest- 
ment of enterprise." * The official report, from the 
same source, for the year 1876, shows that the ex- 
port of coffee, from the single port of Vera Cruz, 
for the year ending June 30, 1876, was, in value, 
$1,146,845. As the United States imports each 
year, from all sources, over fifty million dollars* 
worth of coffee, Mexico certainly has a great in- 
ducement to develop, to their utmost capacity, her 
coffee plantations ; and the United States would 
be benefited in turn by finding a good supply so 
near her own door. 

SUGAR. 

All of the standard authorities on the Mexican 
portion of New Spain testify to its remarkable 
capacity for the production of sugar. Baron Hum- 

* See Report on Commercial Relations for 1874, p. 829. 



OTHER WEALTH. 



99 



boldt tells how, in 1553, only thirty-two years 
after the conquest by Cortez, the production was 
" so great in Mexico that it was exported from 
Vera Cruz and Acapulco into Spain and Peru." * 
In his account of that industry, at the commence- 
ment of the present century, he stated : " The cul- 
tivation of sugar-cane has made such rapid pro- 
gress within these last years that the exporta- 
tion of sugar at the port of Vera Cruz actually 
amounts to more than half a million of arrobas, or 
6,250,000 kilogrammes." That reduced to pounds is 
13,980,312. 

Again, quoting from the report of the British 
minister, in 1827, we have the following testimony: 
" The State of Vera Cruz alone is capable of sup- 
plying all Europe with sugar. Humboldt estimates 
the produce of its richest mould at 2,800 kilo- 
grammes per 'hectare, while that of Cuba does not 
exceed 1,400 kilogrammes, so that the balance is 
as two to one in favor of Vera Cruz." f About 
twenty years later, Mayer, the historian of Mexico, 
wrote : " The sugar-cane is one of the most valu- 
able agricultural products of Mexico, and we are 
convinced, from personal observation, that the es- 
tates in the Tierra Caliente, where it is chiefly raised, 
are the richest as well as the most beautiful in the 

* See Humboldt's " New Spain," iii. 4. 
f Ward's " Mexico," i. 21. 



I00 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

republic. "* Still later authority is the report of 
the United States Consul from the State of Vera 
Cruz in 1874. He says: "The sugar-cane once 
planted lasts from fifteen to twenty years, and this 
with the very little care that is given it by the 
Mexicans generally. It is supposed that the same 
planting will last even for a longer time when cul- 
tivated with the intelligence and experience of the 
foreign planter.'' f 

Again, in 1875, a consul of the United States 
reported : " The plantations in the State of More- 
los (adjoining the States of Mexico and Puebla), 
and which are over some forty in number, now 
produce far more than is required for home con- 
sumption, and are capable of increasing their pro- 
ducts three or four-fold." J 

The exports of sugar from Mexico are evidently 
but a small portion of the product, and the exports 
from the single port of Vera Cruz are not all of the 
exports. But as we are unable to find satisfactory 
information in regard to the amount raised, we give 
the following table of exports of sugar from Vera 
Cruz, for the past few years, as some indication of an 
increased development of that industry in Mexico.§ 

* Mayer's History of Mexico, ii. 62. 

f See Report on Commercial Relations for 1874, p. 876. 

% Idem, for 1875, P- ni8. 

§ Idem, for 1876, p. 746. 



OTHER WEALTH. IO I 

Years ending June 30. Value in Dollars. 
I872-I873 40 

1873-I874 1,884 

1874-1875. 25,l6l 

1875-1876 228,832 

COCHINEAL. 

Another striking illustration of the assertion that 
silver and gold do not comprise all the wealth of 
New Spain are the statistics in regard to the pro- 
duct of cochineal. Ward speaks of it as a product 
" which nature seems to have bestowed almost ex- 
clusively upon Mexico ; for the insect which bears 
the same name in the Brazils is a very inferior 
kind." He states that " the plantations of the 
cochineal cactus are confined to the district of La 
Misteca, in the State of Oaxaca." After telling how, 
in 1758, a government registry of this important 
industry was established in the above-mentioned 
State, he says : " By the official returns, which I 
possess, it appears that the value of cochineal en- 
tered upon the books of this office, up to 1815, was 
$91,308,907, which, upon fifty-seven years, gives an 
average of $1,601,910 per annum, without making 
any allowance for contraband." * He estimated the 
contraband as one-fourth more, and consequently 
the average annual value to be $2,002,387. Mayer 

* Ward's " Mexico," i. 84, 85. 



102 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

gives the statistics of the product down to 1832 as 
follows: " It appears that from 1758 to 1832, inclu- 
sive, or in seventy-five years, 44,195,750 pounds of 
cochineal were produced in the State of Oajaca 
alone, which were worth $106,170,671 at the mar- 
ket price." * 

SILK. 
The raising of silk cocoons was, many years ago, 
quite an industry in parts of New England, and 
many a fine field was covered with mulberry-trees, 
the leaves of which furnished food for the worms. 
But little remains of that industry there except the 
stumps of the trees. It has reappeared in New 
Spain, and has been accompanied there with 
marked success. Of the 3,937 pounds of silk co- 
coons raised in the United States, in 1870, 3,587 
pounds were raised in California.f Brace, who 
wrote about 1868, says of the mulberry-trees: 
" Some 4,000,000 trees are said already to have 
been planted in the State." % 

QUICKSILVER. 

In a careful review of the mineral products of 
the United States during its first century, Prof. 
Hunt says of California, one of the States of for- 

* See his History of Mexico. 

\ See United States Census of 1870. 

% " The New West," by C. L. Brace, p. 323. 



OTHER WEALTH. 



103 



mer New Spain : " In no other region of the globe, 
however, is the ore of quicksilver so widely dis- 
tributed as in California, and there is reason to be- 
lieve that from the opening and working of new 
deposits the production will soon be much in- 
creased, a result which will be stimulated by the 
present high price of quicksilver, and its scarcity in 
foreign markets." * Another authority states that 
it " is found at many localities in Mexico, but is 
not extracted at present on a large scale." f The 
value of the exports of quicksilver in California 
from 1852 (about the beginning of. the working 
of the mines) to 1867, has been estimated to be 
$16,000,000. % The United States Commissioner 
of Mining Statistics, in his annual report for 1874, 
estimates California's exports of quicksilver, for 
the period 1859 to : ^74> both inclusive, to be 
$14,226,441. 

FRUITS AND WINES. 
Many portions of the Southwest produce delicate 
and semi-tropical fruits, and the finest quality of 
wine. Many other portions are well adapted in cli- 
mate and soil to the successful prosecution of that 
industry. In the hot, or low lands of Mexico, the 
banana, orange, pine-apple, and lemon, of excellent 

* " First Century of the Republic," p. 199. 

\ See paper on Mercury, in American Cyclopaedia. 

% See Blake on " Production of Precious Metals," p. 196. 



104 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



quality, are produced in abundance. Ward says : 
" The banana is to the inhabitants of the Tierra 
Caliente what maize is to those of the table land ; it 
furnishes them with the principal article of their 
daily food." * In Central New Spain, near the 
boundary between the two republics, fruits and 
wines of remarkable richness grow in great profu- 
sion. The grape of the Messila valley, in Southern 
New Mexico, is noted for its fine qualities. In 
Southern California the new civilization, which has 
been developing that State since the discovery of 
gold, is showing to the outside world some signifi- 
cant facts and figures in regard to the capabilities 
of New Spain in the growing of fruits and wines. 
A recent writer, in a description of one of the es- 
tates in Southern California, says : " Standing on 
the front veranda one looks down a broad avenue 
overshadowed on each side by magnificent orange- 
trees. This is par excellence the orange avenue. It 
extends a mile with double rows of trees on each 
side. Mr. Rose has, in all, between six and seven 
thousand orange-trees, but only a comparatively 
small part of them have come into bearing. He 
has one hundred and fifty acres in vineyards, where- 
in grow one hundred and thirty-five thousand vines, 
from which he made last year one hundred thou- 

* Ward's " Mexico," i. 51. 



OTHER WEALTH. 



105 



sand gallons of white wine and three thousand gal- 
lons of brandy. A part of the crop that he sent to 
the market last year consisted of two hundred and 
fifty thousand oranges, fifty thousand lemons, and 
twenty-five thousand pounds of English walnuts. 
Besides these tropical fruits, he raises apples, pears, 
and peaches in considerable quantities, and in ad- 
dition to all these, pomegranates, figs, nectarines, 
apricots, and olives." * The same author speaks of 
another orange grove in Southern California " con- 
taining two thousand trees, which, when sixteen 
years old, averaged one thousand five hundred 
oranges per tree, and has continued to yield about 
the same each year ; " of still another orange grove 
of sixteen hundred and fifty trees, some of which 
have borne as many as four thousand oranges ; of a 
gentleman in Los Angeles who " in 1873 sold twelve 
hundred dollars' worth of oranges from the trees on 
half an acre ; " of " an olive-tree in Santa Barbara, 
that is thirty years old, from which has been made 
forty-eight dollars' worth of oil each year, for three 
successive years." The author also states that 
there are " twenty thousand olive-trees already set 
out in Southern California." \ Another writer on 
California says: " There are pear-trees at San Jose 
which produce twenty-five hundred pounds, or forty 

* " Two Years in California," by Mary Cone, p. 65. 
f Idem, pp. 65, 85, and 86. 

5* 



I0 5 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

bushels each of fruit annually." * Still another au- 
thority on California, in describing the great vine- 
yards of that State as he saw them about 1868, 
estimated the number of grape-vines in Sonoma 
valley to be 2,438,000.1 In the United States 
census of 1870 the wine production is given both in 
the statistics of agriculture and manufactures, " ac- 
cording as the wine is made upon the farm or vine- 
yard, and consequently by agricultural labor or in 
large establishments." On the farms California 
produced 1,814,656 gallons of the total 3,092,330 
gallons produced in the whole United States, and 
was the first State of the Union in that product, 
the second State, which was Missouri, producing 
only 326,173 gallons. Of the amount manufactured 
California furnished a product worth $602,553. 
Only one State manufactured more, and that was 
Missouri, whose product was worth $934,442. 

The total wine product of California, for the year 
1876, is estimated to be $3,000,000, and the value 
of the fruit product $2,500,0004 

RESUME. 

The above elements of wealth, other than silver 
and gold, are not all of the varied resources of New 

* Hittel's "California," p. 191. 

\ " The New West," by C. L. Brace, p. 261. 

% San Francisco Journal of Cojnmcrce, January 10, 1877. 



OTHER WEALTH. 



107 



Spain. But the few facts and figures given are 
sufficient to prove that the Southwest is as rich in 
agriculture as in precious metals. Of the States of 
the Union the first in silver, gold, wheat, barley, 
silk, cattle, are States acquired from Mexico, and 
within the limits of New Spain. Furthermore, 
one of the States in the same remarkable area will 
very soon be first in the value of its cotton pro- 
duct, for Texas, on less than o?te per cent, of its area, 
produced, in 1876, more than any other State, ex- 
cept Mississippi. 

Remarkable as are these statistics, they are still 
more so when we consider that the Southwest is 
comparatively new to American civilization, is 
sparsely settled, is almost unknown to railways, 
and comparatively undeveloped. 

Probably no other portion of the earth's surface 
is naturally so self-supporting, for the long list of 
its products not only embraces the staple articles 
of commerce and the necessities of life, but also 
very many of the luxuries; and all grow in great 
profusion. 



108 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER IV. 
LUXURIES AND ATTRACTIONS. 



FACILITIES FOR THE ACQUIREMENT OF WEALTH. 

THE country which abounds in facilities for the 
acquisition of wealth, as well as its enjoyment, is 
pre-eminently the place for luxuries. Such a land 
is New Spain. Without riches in silver and gold 
and agriculture, it would be an attractive resort for 
tourists and pleasure-seekers from abroad, because 
of its delightful climate, high table-lands, and mag- 
nificent scenery. But climate and scenery are not 
sufficient for the wants of permanent inhabitants. 
The world is full of illustrations of the tendency, 
on the part of the rich, to leave the unattractive 
places where they were enabled to acquire fortunes, 
and go elsewhere with their riches, seeking plea- 
sures and luxuries. Fortunate is the country which 
furnishes both riches and pleasures. The immense 
treasures in silver and gold of the Montezumas, 
the great wealth acquired by many of the Span- 
ish proprietors of the mines in Old Mexico, the 
princely fortunes unlocked from the mines of Cali- 



LUXURIES AND ATTRACTIONS. 



109 



fornia and Nevada, in the northern portion of New 
Spain, are striking instances of the capacity of the 
Southwest, as a whole, when, as a whole, it receives 
an adequate development. Cortez undertook the 
conquest of Mexico because he believed it to be 
a promising field for the acquirement of riches. 
That he did not overestimate the wealth of that 
portion of New Spain appears from the amount 
of spoils secured by his soldiers, the known value 
of which was over six million dollars, and the value 
of that not estimated by the historians was perhaps 
as much more. We have already seen how one of 
the Spanish miners of Durango extracted thirty 
million dollars in precious metals in the space of 
twenty-four years ; how in the north of New Spain 
over a thousand millions of gold have been taken 
from the mines of California since 1848, and nearly 
three hundred millions of gold and silver taken 
from the mines of Nevada since 1859. According 
to the United States census the value of real and 
personal property of California, at different dates, 
is estimated as follows : 

1850 $22,161,872 

i860 207,874,613 

1870 638,767,017 

Of the history of material development, the 
world has never furnished so brilliant a page as 



HO THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

California during the last twenty-nine years. It is 
unnecessary to mention individual instances of the 
fortunes acquired in California and Nevada, for the 
story has many times been told, and is well known. 
Suffice it to say that San Francisco in a very few 
years has grown to be an important money center, 
and the great fortunes of the future in this country 
are likely to be most numerous on the Pacific coast. 

TOPOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE. 
Good climate is not only one of the greatest of 
luxuries, but is an absolute necessity for thousands 
of suffering humanity. It is a luxury which, in 
itself, costs no money, but immense sums are spent 
every year in the pilgrimage to find it. Business is 
neglected, and expense disregarded by those whose 
lives depend upon the pure, dry, and exhilarating air 
of high elevations, and an escape from the severity of 
northern winters. All of these good qualities may 
be found in the climate of New Spain to a degree 
unsurpassed by any other part of the world. Flor- 
ida possesses some of these qualities, but not the 
elevations or dryness. Other resorts are elevated 
and dry, but without mild winters. In the South- 
west all of these features are combined. Large 
numbers of health-seekers have already been at- 
tracted to Southern Colorado, New Mexico, Ari- 
zona, and Southern California, and when that re- 



L UX URIES A ND A TTRA CTIONS. \ \ \ 

gion is more generally known to the outside world, 
and the advance of railways renders it more acces- 
sible, thousands more will seek its health-giving 
climate. 

As we have previously seen, the great interior of 
Old Mexico is a highly elevated table-land, and 
New Mexico averages 5,660 feet above the sea. A 
good authority states that " the Mexicans divide 
their country, with respect to climate, into Tier- 
ras Calientes (hot lands), which rarely exceed 900 
feet in elevation ; Tierras Templadas (temperate), 
ranging between 4,000 and 5,000 feet ; and Tierras 
Frias (cold), above 7,000 feet." * Of these classifi- 
cations the hot lands constitute a very small por- 
tion of the area, and are the narrow strip of low 
elevations near the oceans. A writer on New Mex- 
ico makes the following comment on its climate, 
which could with equal justice be applied to Old 
Mexico, viz.: "The sanitoria of the Union is lo- 
cated in Southern New Mexico, where the atmos- 
phere is more dry than in Colorado, the sky 
brighter, the nights sufficiently cool for refreshing 
sleep, and free from 'damp night air,' and the ele- 
vations are such as to suit each case, varying from 
the elevation of the Rio Grande at 4,000 feet, to 
the mines in Grant County, and the high cattle 

* Paper on Mexico in Lippincott's Gazetteer. 



H2 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

ranches in the Guadaloupe ranges in Lincoln County, 
where 7,000 feet may be selected on the clear trout 
streams and cool springs of water." * 

An authority on "Semi-tropical California" says 
of Los Angeles : " During what may be termed 
the winter months 50 will mark on an average the 
mean temperature, and water is never congealed. "f 
It gives for the year 1871, the temperature of a 
place in Los Angeles as follows : % 

Month. Sunrise. <$A.M. 3 P. M. 9 P. M. 

January 40 55 64 50 

February 41 56 64 48 

March 40 60 69 54 

April. 53 66 73 57 

May 56 65 71 60 

June 61 70 JJ 64 

July 66 74 80 67 

August 65 75 81 69 

September 61 75 85 6y 

October 59 74 79 62 

November 49 67 69 57 

December 47 57 62 51 

Prof. Raymond, in his annual report for 1870, 
says : " The climate of New Mexico is mild and 

* " New Mexico," by Brevoort, p. 149. 

f Truman's " Semi-tropical California," p. 31. 

j: Idem, p. 78. 



L UXURIES AND A TTRA CTIONS. i r 3 

healthy, the sky as clear as that of Italy, and the 
air transparent and pure. In fact the very act of 
breathing in this country makes existence in it a 
pleasure." * 

But the pure mountain air of the Southwest is 
not confined to the uninhabited regions. Many of 
the business centers and great cities are mountain 
cities, Santa Fe, in New Mexico, being 7,047 feet 
above the sea, and the capital of Old Mexico 7,469 
feet above the sea. Those who dread the fogs 
and miasmas of river valleys, the severe winters of 
New England and other Northern States, who seek 
a mild, agreeable, and invigorating climate, either 
as a necessity or luxury, can find it in the land se- 
lected by the civilized native races as their moun- 
tain home, coveted and conquered by the Spanish, 
and now being approached by the Anglo-American 
civilization. 

SCENERY AND WONDERS. 

Perhaps not in the whole world can the pleasure- 
seekers find a greater variety of wonders and mag- 
nificent scenery than in different portions of New 
Spain. An elevated mountain city possesses the 
luxury of grand scenery as well as delightful cli- 
mate. Mexico is in the mountains, over seven 

* Annual Report on Mining Statistics, p. 383. 



H4 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

thousand feet above the sea, and also in a valley sur- 
rounded by mountains. In other words, it is situ- 
ated in a mountain valley which is surrounded by 
mountain ranges and peaks, making a rare combi- 
nation of remarkable scenery. The valley of Mex- 
ico, as first seen by the Spanish conquerors, when 
on their march they reached the summit of the 
surrounding mountains, is beautifully illustrated by 
the word-painting of Prescott as follows : " Its pic- 
turesque assemblage of water, woodland, and culti- 
vated plains, its shining cities and shadowy hills, 
was spread out like some gay and gorgeous pano- 
rama before them. In the highly rarefied atmos- 
phere of these upper regions even remote objects 
have a brilliancy of coloring and a distinctness of 
outline which seem to annihilate distance. Stretch- 
ing far away at their feet were seen noble forests 
of oak, sycamore, and cedar ; and beyond, yellow 
fields of maize, and the towering maguey inter- 
mingled with orchards and blooming gardens ; for 
flowers, in such demand for their religious festivals, 
were even more abundant in this populous valley 
than in other parts of Anahuac. In the center of 
the great basin were beheld the lakes, occupying 
then a much larger portion of its surface than at 
present ; their borders thickly studded with towns 
and hamlets in the midst — like some Indian em- 
press with her coronal of pearls, — the fair city of 



LUXURIES AND ATTRACTIONS. 



"5 



Mexico, with her white towers and pyramidal 
temples reposing as it were on the bosom of the 
waters, the far-famed ' Venice of the Aztecs.' " * 
The city and lakes have changed since the days 
of the conquest, but in other respects the magnifi- 
cence of the combination of mountain and valley 
remains the same. 

As we have previously stated, this is not a de- 
tailed review of the Southwest. It is a brief statis- 
tical summary, and space does not permit more 
than a few notes on the subject of scenery. The 
Yosemite Valley, in northern New Spain, would 
alone require a whole volume, with costly illustra- 
tions. Such works are already in existence, and 
are mentioned in the list of " Authorities." There 
are, however, a few wonders which can appropri- 
ately be noticed here, and one is the u big trees." 
Bancroft speaks of nine groves having been dis- 
covered in California, of which the most remarkable 
are those known as Calaveras and Mariposa groves. 
He says, of Calaveras grove, that it " contains about 
ninety trees, which can be called really big ; " and 
then proceeds to give the measurement of all of the 
thirty-one which had been measured by the State 
survey, f This list contains — 



* Prescott's " Conquest of Mexico," ii. 51, 52. 
f Bancroft's " Tourist's Guide," pp. 52-54. 



H6 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Five between 231 and 250 feet high. 
Seventeen between 250 and 275 feet high. 
Five " 275 " 300 " 

Three " 300 " 325 " 

and one 32$ feet high, with a girth of 45 feet six 
feet from the ground. Of another one of this list, 
he states it had a girth of 61 feet, without the bark. 

Of Mariposa grove he says that there were, at 
the time of the last official count, 606 trees. Of 
the two groves he says : " Both the Calaveras and 
Mariposa groves contain hollow trunks of fallen 
trees through which two, and even three horsemen 
can ride abreast for 60 or 70 feet."* 

Of the age of the trees, Whitney, in his " Geo- 
logical Survey of California," states that one of the 
trees in the Calaveras grove, " six feet above the 
ground, has a diameter of 23 feet inside the bark, and 
was found to be about 1,300 years old. It was easy 
to count the annual rings, and they amounted to 
1,255 in number; but there being a small space, 
about a foot in diameter, at the center of the tree, 
from which the wood was decayed away, it would 
be a reasonable estimate to call the age of this par- 
ticular tree about 1,300 years." f 

But mountain cities, " big trees," and the won- 

* Idem, p. 62. 

f Whitney's "Geological Survey of California," i. 444. 



LUXURIES AND ATTRACTIONS. 



117 



derful Yosemite Valley are not all. Brace describes 
a grape-vine near Santa Barbara, in California, 
which " was planted by a lady, Donna de Domin- 
guez, over sixty-five years ago, from a slip which 
she had cut in Monterey County for a horsewhip. 
It is trained on a trellis, about ten feet from the 
ground, and now covers a space, as I measured it, 
of ninety-three feet by about fifty. The circum- 
ference of the trunk five inches from the ground 
was three feet and a half inch ; and eight feet high, 
just below the branches, it measured four feet and 
three inches. It bears about eight thousand pounds 
of grapes per annum, and is said to almost support 
the family which own it."* Another wonder, ac- 
cording to Baron Humboldt, and which we have al- 
ready described, is the highly elevated plateau or 
flattened crest of the mountains extending through 
the center of New Spain, and which he considered 
one of the most remarkable formations of the kind 
in the whole world. 

Still another remarkable formation is the canon 
of the Colorado River of the West, and one which 
has not a parallel in the whole world. The rocky 
walls, between which this river flows, are, at one 
place, 6,200 feet high, rising almost perpendicularly. 
In other words, the walls which stand facing each 

* " The New West," by C. L. Brace, pp. 302, 303. 



Il8 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

other on opposite sides of the narrow stream are 
over a mile high."* 

ANTIQUITIES. 
To the student there is no greater pleasure than 
a visit to' the ancient ruins of the classic nations. 
In his college course the study of Ancient America 
has been sacrificed for the study of Ancient Greece 
and Rome. It is not unreasonable that the study 
of the antiquities of foreign civilized nations should 
be more attractive and instructive than the anti- 
quities of wild Indian tribes at home. But there is 
one portion of North America which abounds in 
antiquities of a very brilliant civilization, and an- 
other portion which abounds in the ruins of semi- 
civilized native races. Both of these classes of anti- 
quities are confined to New Spain, the ruins of the 
Aztecs, Toltecs, and perhaps still earlier nations 
being in Old Mexico, and the ruins of the Pueblos 
in New Mexico and Arizona and other portions of 
the territory acquired from Mexico. To describe 
these ruins would require, at least, a dozen volumes 
larger than this, and to illustrate them would re- 
quire a fortune of large dimensions. Lord Kings- 
borough's illustrated work on Mexican antiquities, 
as we have already mentioned, cost over one hun- 
dred and sixty thousand dollars. We can only 

* See Powell on the Colorado River of the West. 



LUXURIES AND ATTRACTIONS. 



II 9 



mention a few significant facts and figures, and call 
the attention of 'the reader to the authorities on this 
subject, to show that it is one of the great attrac- 
tions of New Spain. And it is an attraction which 
will be appreciated when there are such railway 
facilities as will enable the student and tourist to 
conveniently visit that part of classic America. 

Of Yucatan, the southern State of New Spain, 
Bancroft states it " presents a rich field for anti- 
quarian exploration, furnishing, perhaps, finer and 
certainly more numerous specimens of ancient ab- 
original architecture, sculpture, and painting than 
have been discovered in any other section of Amer- 
ica. The State is literally dotted, at least in the 
northern, central, or best known portions, with 
ruined edifices and cities." * Stephens, who was 
the first one to make an extensive exploration of 
Yucatan, and whose two interesting volumes that 
record his discoveries contain one hundred and 
twenty engravings illustrating the ruins, says : " In 
our long, irregular, and devious route, we have dis- 
covered the crumbling remains of forty-four an- 
cient cities, most of them but a short distance 
apart." f Many of these ruins will compare favor- 
ably with the ruins of the European classic nations, 
as a reference to illustrations contained in Ste- 

* Bancroft's " Native Races," iv. 143. 
f Stephens on Yucatan, ii. 444. 



120 THE SILVER COUNTRY 

phens's, Lord Kingsborough's, Catherwood's, and 
other works will prove. 

The Casa del Gobemador, one of the buildings 
described and illustrated in these works, was "a 
building three hundred and twenty-two feet long, 
thirty-nine feet wide, and twenty-six feet high, 
built of stone and mortar." * Coming northwardly 
through New Spain, one can find, between Vera 
Cruz and the city of Mexico, the ruins of a pyr- 
amid of " sandstone in regularly cut blocks laid 
in mortar," seven stories high, and over ninety 
feet square at the base.f In about the same lati- 
tude, and not far from the present city of Puebla, 
are the ruins of the pyramid of Cholula. It is 
thus described by Bancroft: "From a base about 
fourteen hundred and forty feet square, whose sides 
face the cardinal points, it rose in four equal sto- 
ries to a height of nearly two hundred feet, hav- 
ing a summit platform of about two hundred feet 
square." * * * " It is very evident that the 
pyramid of Cholula contains nothing in itself to 
indicate its age, but from well-defined and doubt- 
less reliable traditions, we may feel very sure that 
its erection dates back to the tenth century, and 
probably preceding the seventh. Humboldt shows 
that it is larger at the base than any of the old- 

* Bancroft's " Native .Races," iv. 156. 
f Idem, pp. 452-454. 



L UXURIES AND A TTRA CTIONS. \ 2 1 

world pyramids — over twice as large as that of 
Cheops." * 

The broad platform at the summit of this pyra- 
mid was, says the historian, arranged for a temple, 
which was several times built and rebuilt, its last 
destruction being at the hands of the soldiers of 
Cortez in a fierce battle with the Aztecs. 

Still farther north, near the boundary between 
the United States and Mexico, are ruins of the 
semi-civilization. They are described in detail and 
finely illustrated .by the engravings of Bartlett's 
elaborate work on the border States. 

As we have already mentioned, Coronado, who 
explored the northern portion of New Spain soon 
after Cortez conquered Mexico, found in New Mex- 
ico, Arizona, and Southern Colorado, seventy an- 
cient cities or villages, and ruins of many more.f 
According to Davis, some of the buildings among 
those ruins contained six and seven stories.^ 

In the extreme northern portion of New Spain, 
as well as the southern and central portions, the 
ancient ruins are very abundant, so much so, that 
Holmes, of Prof. Hayden's survey, in his recent 
report on the ruins of the San Juan region, chiefly 
in Southwestern Colorado, states : " There is boun- 



* Idem., pp. 469-475. 
f Ante, p. 13. 
\ Ante, p. 12. 



122 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

tiful evidence that at one time it supported a nu- 
merous population ; there is scarcely a square mile 
in the six thousand examined that would not fur- 
nish evidence of occupation by a race totally dis- 
tinct from the nomadic savages who hold it now, 
and in every way superior to them."* 

In support of the assertion that New Spain is 
exceedingly attractive in its antiquities, and that 
the ancient ruins and architecture will compare 
very favorably with those of foreign classic na- 
tions, we invite the attention of the reader to the 
magnificent illustrations of Mexican monuments in 
Lord Kingsborough's costly work, to the equally 
magnificent but less costly illustrations by Cather- 
wood, to the many views of the massive ruins of 
Yucatan contained in Stephens's profusely illus- 
trated work, and to the thorough and comprehen- 
sive reviews of the antiquities of New Spain con- 
tained in Baldwin's " Ancient America," and the 
fourth volume of Bancroft's " Native Races." 

In view of the fact that the ancient history of the 
Southwest is a history of civilization, that the only 
ancient civilization of North America was confined 
to that particular section, the study of its antiqui- 
ties is very important as well as attractive. 

The new interest in the ancient history of Amer- 

* See paper on ancient ruins of Southwestern Colorado, by W. H. 
Holmes, in tenth annual report of Hayden's Survey. 



L UXURIES AND A TTRA CTIONS. \ 2 3 

ica, stimulated by Bancroft's recent and complete 
review of the native races of New Spain, by the 
recent explorations of, and reports on, the antiqui- 
ties by Prof. Hayden's and Lieutenant Wheeler's 
Surveys, and by the recent Centennial of American 
Independence, makes the Southwest, which is the 
richest field for such researches, unusually conspi- 
cuous. And when New Spain is intersected by 
railways, we may expect to see frequent pilgrim- 
ages of patriotic Americans to that shrine of an- 
cient American history. 

FLOWERS. 

New Spain might with propriety have been called 
the Flowery Kingdom, for the march of the Span- 
ish soldiers under Cortez, from the coast to the 
interior, was along a pathway of flowers, a luxury 
comparatively unknown to the other pioneers from 
Europe who entered America on the shores of New 
England. The historian, in describing the march 
from Vera Cruz toward the capital, tells how, when 
they arrived at Cempoalla, " the women, as well as 
the men, mingled fearlessly among the soldiers, 
bearing bunches and wreaths of flowers, with which 
they decorated the neck of the general's charger, 
and hung a chaplet of roses about his helmet. 
Flowers were the delight of this people. They 






124 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



bestowed much care in their cultivation." * Again, 
in describing the entrance to Cholula, in the inte- 
rior, the historian says the native people " showed 
the same delicate taste for flowers as the other 
tribes of the plateau, decorating their persons with 
them, and tossing garlands and bunches among the 
soldiers." f Still more interesting is the descrip- 
tion of the great market at the Aztec capital. 
Prescott, after speaking of the various products 
and wares exhibited there for sale, says : " All these 
commodities, and every stall and portico were set 
out, or rather smothered with flowers, showing, on 
a much larger scale indeed, a taste similar to that 
displayed in the markets of modern Mexico. Flow- 
ers seem to be the spontaneous growth of this lux- 
uriant soil, which, instead of noxious weeds, as in 
other regions, is ever ready, without the aid of man, 
to cover up its nakedness with this rich and varie- 
gated livery of nature."^ Mexico of the present 
day abounds in this pleasing luxury. A recent 
authority states that " the flowers of Mexico are 
among the richest and most varied in the world, 
and several of the streets of the capital on Sunday 
mornings are literally enameled with flowers of 
brilliant hue and fragrant odor." § Northern New 

* Prescott's " Conquest of Mexico," i. 342. 
f Idem, ii. 13. \ Idem, p. 138. 

§ Paper on Mexico in American Cyclopaedia. 



L UXURIES AND A TTRA CTIONS. 



125 



Spain, as well as the Mexican portion, possesses the 
same attractive features in the profusion of flowers. 
In his review of California, Brace says : " San 
Francisco should be called the ' City of Flowers.' 
Such is the power of this divine climate, that it 
only needs a little patch of sand and mould, with 
plenty of water, to produce the most magnificent 
vegetation. Every house with bits of yard like 
ours in New York makes the most splendid show 
of flowers ; scarlet geraniums ten feet high, lemon 
verbenas which are small trees, fuchsias of immense 
size, callas in great bunches, splendid roses of many 
varieties, clambering vines, large cacti, gum-trees 
(Eucalypti) of Australia, and beautiful evergreens 
from Japan, Australia, and this coast— all left out 
through the year, and only needing plenty of water 
from the garden hose." * 

With such an array of testimony, and much more 
which might be cited to the same effect, the term 
" Flowery Kingdom " seems particularly appropri- 
ate. 

FRUITS AND WINES. 

Perhaps the tropical fruits and delicate wines of 
New Spain are quite as important as luxuries as 
an element of wealth ; and what there is on this 

* The " New West," by C. L. Brace, p. 37. 



126 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

subject in the preceding chapter could with pro- 
priety be reproduced here. Most all of the leading 
markets in the United States which deal in im- 
ported luxuries are supplied with the pears and 
grapes and wines of California. Oranges, olives, 
pineapples, bananas, and figs are other luxuries 
which grow in profusion in New Spain, but thus far 
have been enjoyed chiefly by her own inhabitants. 
The tropical and semi-tropical regions of the South- 
west can, with suitable development, supply the 
whole of North America with these luxuries, so 
extensively imported and used. 

LUXURIOUS LIVING. 

Other lands are attractive because of the grandeur 
of scenery, the wonders of nature, and the antiqui- 
ties ; but, as a rule, they are not wealth-producing, 
and the attractions are consequently mainly en- 
joyed by the tourists from abroad. New Spain 
possesses a great advantage in the combination of 
natural wealth and luxuries. It is a place for lux- 
urious living at home. It was so in the days of the 
Montezumas, and is so to a remarkable degree 
under the civilization which has started its modern 
development in California. " Solomon in all his 
glory was not arrayed " more gorgeously than the 
king of the Aztecs; nor were the presents from the 



L UXURIES AND A TTRA CTIONS. j 27 

Queen of Sheba to King Solomon as great in value 
as those from Montezuma to Cortez. 

Bancroft states that Montezuma changed his 
dress four times each day, and a dress worn once 
could never be used again.* 

The same historian says, in his description of 
Montezuma's palace: " The dinner-service was of 
the finest ware of Cholula, and many of the goblets 
were of gold and silver, or fashioned of beautiful 
shells. He is said to have possessed a complete set 
of solid gold; but as it was considered below a 
king's dignity to use anything at table twice, Mon- 
tezuma, with all his extravagance, was obliged to 
keep this costly dinner-set in the temple. The bill 
of fare comprised everything edible of fish, flesh, 
and fowl that could be procured in the empire or 
imported from beyond it."f No country but one 
rich in resources would beget the luxurious customs 
so prevalent in the Aztec civilization. Bancroft 
says : " The excessive fondness of the Aztecs for 
feasts and amusements of every kind, seems to 
have extended through all ranks of society. Every 
man feasted his neighbor, and was himself in turn 
feasted. Birthdays, victories, house-warmings, suc- 
cessful voyages or speculations, and other events 
too numerous to enumerate were celebrated with 

* " Native Races," ii. 179. 

f Bancroft's " Native Races," ii. 174, 175. 



128 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

feasts. Every man, from king to peasant, con- 
sidered it incumbent upon him to be second to 
none among his equals in the giving of banquets 
and entertainments."* Young nations seldom en- 
joy the same degree of luxury that has been at- 
tained by older ones, where wealth has accumu- 
lated. A large portion of the first century of the 
United States, as well as many previous years of 
colonial experience, was unaccompanied by lux- 
urious living. The New England settlers had to 
do chiefly with the trials, privations, the stern re- 
alities and prose of life ; and what luxuries are 
now enjoyed by their descendants were of exceed- 
ingly slow growth. But the character of the soil 
and climate of New England, more than its youth, 
was the barrier to luxurious living, as the short ex- 
perience and rapid attainment of wealth and luxury 
of California most conclusively proves. Had the 
energetic and thrifty Pilgrims entered America in 
the Southwest instead of the Northeast, the early 
history of this country would have been far more 
brilliant. Now the Anglo-American civilization has 
extended across the continent, with its accumula- 
tion of experience and skill, and has commenced 
operations on the borders of New Spain, it will be 
an interesting spectacle to watch the results. It is 

* Bancroft's " Native Races," ii. 283. 



LUXURIES AND ATTRACTIONS. 



129 



reasonable to presume the development will be 
more prolific in luxuries than any portion of North 
America, outside of New Spain, has ever known. 

During the past few years much has been said by 
the press of this country about the annual exodus 
to Europe of the rich, the tourists, and pleasure- 
seekers, and the amount of money spent there each 
year by Americans has been estimated to be very 
many millions of dollars. The remedy proposed is 
to make home more attractive. But money spent 
on improvements will not change the New England 
climate or that of river valleys ; nor will it create 
mountain scenery where it does not already exist. 
The true way to prevent the continual outflow of 
capital is to develop that portion of America where 
nature has provided luxuries in great abundance ; 
and New Spain is endowed to profusion with the 
many qualities which add luxury to life. 
6* 



j^q THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE AUTHORITIES. 

THE Southwest, or New Spain, is as rich in 
written history as in silver and gold. It has fur- 
nished the world with as many volumes as the 
Northeast, or New England. But a glance at the 
book-shelves of libraries in the United States does 
not confirm this assertion, for the reason that the 
larger portion were published in Spanish and are 
not generally translated or known in this country. 
Again, of the many books in English on Mexico, a 
large portion were published in England, and many 
of them are little known in America. The Library 
of Congress, however, is an exception, for it con- 
tains nearly every work in English which has ever 
been published on Mexico, or the States and Terri- 
tories of the cessions to the United States. There 
may be a few other libraries which contain nearly 
complete sets of English authorities on New Spain, 
but these collections are not sufficiently numerous 
or accessible to answer the wants of the business 
community, which is being attracted more than ever 
before toward the great Southwest and its material 



THE A UTHORITIES. 1 3 1 

development. Authorities are coming into demand, 
but are difficult to find. Books on some distant 
foreign lands are probably more generally known 
in this country than those on Mexico, and for the 
reason that the business intercourse between the 
two republics has been very limited. Mexico's 
chief want is to be known, and when it is thor- 
oughly known to the Anglo-Americans, her won- 
derful riches and attractions will attract the much- 
needed thrifty civilization. 

The books written in, or translated into, English 
are the only ones of much practical value to the 
business community; but a brief description of the 
books of the native races and their conquerors, the 
Spanish, may not be uninteresting. 

Bancroft, in describing the Aztec system of writ- 
ing, says that they " derived their system tradition- 
ally from the Toltecs, whose written annals they 
also inherited."* Humboldt says: " The Mexi- 
cans were in possession of annals that went back to 
eight centuries and a half beyond the epocha of the 
arrival of Cortez in the country of Anahuac." f 
We have seen, in the chapter on silver and gold, 
how proficient the Toltecs were in the arts, "and it 
is to be presumed that their advanced civilization 
reached as far as their records and histories. For- 

* " Natives Races of Pacific States," ii. 528. 

f See Baron Humboldt's " Researches in America," p. 297. 



*32 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



tunately we find more information about the re- 
cords of the Aztecs. Prescott says : " At the time 
of the arrival of the Spaniards great quantities of 
these manuscripts were treasured up in the country; 
numerous persons were employed in painting, and 
the dexterity of their operations excited the aston- 
ishment of the conquerors. Unfortunately this was 
mingled with other and unworthy feelings. The 
strange, unknown characters inscribed on them ex- 
cited suspicion." * * * " The first archbishop 
of Mexico collected these paintings from every 
quarter, especially from Tezcuco, the most culti- 
vated capital in Anahuac, and the great depository 
of the national archives. He then caused them to 
be piled up in a ' mountain heap,' as it is called by 
the Spanish writers themselves, in the market-place 
of Tlateloco, and reduced them all to ashes." * He 
further says of the Aztec manuscripts : " They were 
sometimes done up into rolls, but more frequently 
into volumes of moderate size, in which the paper 
was shut up like a folding screen, with a leaf or 
tablet of wood at each extremity that gave the 
whole, when closed, the appearance of a book." f 
Bancroft says of the Aztec books : " Respecting the 
historical value of the destroyed documents, it is 
safe to believe that they contained all that the 

* "Conquest of Mexico," by Prescott, i. 101. 
f Idem, i. ioo. 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



133 



Aztecs knew of their past. Having once conceived 
the idea of recording their annals, and having a 
system of writing adequate to the purpose, it is 
inconceivable that they failed to record all they 
knew." * 

Lord Kingsborough's remarkable illustrated work 
on the antiquities of Mexico contains fac-similes of 
about a dozen of these Aztec books, or original 
hieroglyphic paintings. They contain about seven- 
ty-five pages each. A glance at them is sufficient 
to satisfy one that the native races were quite pro- 
ficient in the making of records and histories, and 
that if we had access to all the books they wrote 
a flood of light would be let in upon the ancient 
history of the Southwest. The destruction of this 
classic history of North America is a loss which is 
more keenly felt now that the historians are striving 
to trace back, as far as possible, the history of the 
early civilization of a nation which is to-day one of 
the leading ones of the earth. 

The Spanish were very prolific writers, and dur- 
ing their supremacy in New Spain, from the Con- 
quest in 1521 to their downfall in 1821, furnished 
the world with a vast number of volumes on that 
attractive country. Some few have been translated, 
but the most are still in Spanish, and inaccessible 



* " Native Races of Pacific States," ii. 528. 



!34 THE SILVER COUNTRY, 

to the general reader. Bancroft's account of his 
own collection, made while preparing his most 
valuable work on the " Native Races of the Pacific 
States," shows how numerous are the works in 
Spanish. He says, in the introduction to his his- 
tory: " To some it may be of interest to know the 
nature and extent of the author's resources for writ- 
ing so important a series of works. The books and 
manuscripts necessary for the task existed in no 
library in the world ; hence, in 1859, ne commenced 
collecting material relative to the Pacific States. 
After securing everything in his reach in America, 
he twice visited Europe, spending about two years 
in thorough researches in England and the chief 
cities of the continent. Having exhausted every 
available source, he was obliged to content himself 
with lying in wait for opportunities. Not long 
afterward, and at a time when the prospect of ma- 
terially adding to his collection seemed anything 
but hopeful, the Biblioteca Imperial de Mejico of the 
unfortunate Maximilian, collected during a period 
of forty years, by Don Jose Maria Andrade, lit- 
terateur and publisher, of the city of Mexico, was 
thrown on the European market, and furnished 
him about three thousand additional volumes. In 
1869, having accumulated some sixteen thousand 
books, manuscripts, and pamphlets, besides maps 



THE A UTHORITIES. \ 3 5 

and cumbersome files of Pacific coast journals, he 
determined to go to work."* 

Of this collection a large number are in Spanish ; 
and as the work is mainly on the native races who 
inhabited the same country which afterward con- 
stituted New Spain, a large portion of the collec- 
tion must necessarily relate to the Southwest. 
Large as is this library, it would be much more 
extensive if it contained all the Spanish books and 
manuscripts on the various portions of New Spain. 
The historian of Texas expresses the opinion that 
there are in existence many authorities in Spanish 
on that State which he was unable to obtain, viz. : 
" The correspondence of the Franciscan Friars 
from 17 16 to 1794 is believed to be in the parent 
convents of Queretaro and Zacatecas, This would 
throw a flood of light upon that subject." Second, 
" The thirty folio volumes covering the transactions 
in Texas, for the first half century of its history, 
were forwarded to the king of Spain in 1744, and 
are probably in the archives of Salamanca, in 
Spain." f As the Southwest increases in civiliza- 
tion and wealth, these old Spanish records and 
manuscripts will be more and more sought for, and 
it is to be hoped some American institution will 
yet possess a full set of Spanish authorities. 



* From Preface of " Native Races," i. 

f See introduction to Yoakum's " History of Texas. 



136 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

But the works in English are the ones of greatest 
practical value. The following list of authorities 
is probably nearly all the works yet published in 
the English language on the history, resources, 
voyages, expeditions, and surveys and antiquities 
of New Spain. But it does not embrace all the 
books on the Indian tribes, town and city history, 
works on the war between the United States and 
Mexico, legislative documents, pamphlets, Mormon 
history of Utah — the northern state of New Spain — 
nor the various reports on the proposed Tehuante- 
pec interoceanic canal across the southern State of 
New Spain. With a very few exceptions, all of the 
books in the list are to be found in the Library of 
Congress. As but few of the other public libra- 
ries of the United States contain complete, or even 
nearly complete sets of authorities on the South- 
west, the names of the publishers of the respective 
publications are given in the list. 

All of the books mentioned in the list, except 
the few designated by a star following the name of 
the author, have been examined, and the titles 
taken from the title-pages. The few thus desig- 
nated, and which we have been unable to find, are 
nearly all English publications, and the names and 
titles are taken from the English and British cata- 
logues of publications : 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



THE AUTHORITIES ON MEXICO. 



117 



Abbott, Gorham D. — Mexico and the United States. 
New York, 1869. G. P. Putnam & Son. It treats 
of the Catholic church ; the government ; Juarez 
and his cabinet ; interoceanic canals ; the Monroe 
doctrine ; and gives a copy of the Constitution of 
Mexico. 

Alarchon, Fernando. — Voyage along the Gulf of 
California in 1540. In Hakluyt's Voyages, iii. 505. 

Alvensleben, Max, Baron Von. — With Maximilian 
in Mexico. London, 1867. Longmans, Green & Co. 

Barinctti, C. — A Voyage to Mexico and Havana. 
New York, 1841. Printed for author. 

Baz, Gustavo, and E. L. Gallo. — History of the 
Mexican Railway. Mexico, 1876. Gallo & Co. 

Beaufoy, Mark. — Mexican Illustrations. London, 
1828. Carpenter & Son. 

Bishop, Anna. — Travels in Mexico, 1849. Phila- 
delphia, Charles Deall. This chiefly on society of 
Mexico. 

Browne, J. Ross. — A sketch of the settlement 
and exploration of Lower California. In his book 
on " The Resources of the Pacific States." 

Bullock, VV. //".—Across Mexico, in 1864-1865. 
London, 1866. McMillan & Co. 

Bullock, W. — Six Months' Residence and Travels 
in Mexico. 2 vols. London, 1825. John Murray. 



I38 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

It contains a fine illustration of the valley and 
city of Mexico. 

Calderon de la Barca, Madame. — Life in Mexico. 
London, 1843. Chapman & Hall. 2 vols. Is de- 
scriptive of Mexican society, and a leading work 
on that subject. 

Carpenter, Wm. W. — Travels and Adventures 
in Mexico. New York, 1851. Harper & Brothers. 

Catherwood, F. — Views of Ancient Monuments 
in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. New 
York, 1844. Bartlett & Welford. A magnificent 
illustrated work. 

Champ lain, Samuel. — Narrative of a Voyage to 
the West Indies and Mexico, in the Years 1599— 
1602. With maps and illustrations. Hakluyt So- 
ciety Publication, vol. 23. 

Chevalier, M. Michel. — Mexico, Ancient and 
Modern. London, 1864. John Maxwell & Co. 
2 vols. Itkgives a full account of the Maximilian 
programme. 

Chevalier, Michel. — Mexico before and after the 
Conquest. Philadelphia, 1826. Carey & Hart. 

Chipman, C. — Mineral Resources of Northern 
Mexico. New York, 1868. Baker & Godwin, 
printers. 

Church, Geo. E.* — Historical and Political Review 
of Mexico and its Revolutions. 

Chynowesly* — The Fall of Maximilian, 1872. 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



1 39 



Cincinnatus* — Travels in the Western Slope of 
the Mexican Cordillera. San Francisco, 1867. 

ClavigcrOy Francesco Saverio. — History of Mex- 
ico. 3 vols. Translated from the Italian by C. 
Cullen. Philadelphia, 18 17. Thomas Dobson. 

Cluseret, G. — Mexico and the Solidarity of Na- 
tions. New York, 1866. Blackwell, printer. 

Cortez, Hernando. — The Dispatches of Hernan- 
do Cortez, the Conqueror of Mexico, addressed 
to the Emperor Charles V. ; written during the 
Conquest, and containing a Narrative of its Events. 
New York, 1843. Wiley & Putnam. 

Dalton, Win. — Stories of the Conquest of Mex- 
ico and Peru. London, 1874. James Blackwood 
&Co. 

Diaz, Bemal. — The Memoirs of the Conquesta- 
dor Bernal Diaz del Castillo, written by himself, 
containing a true and full account of the Discovery 
and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. 2 vols. 
London, 1844. J- Hatchard & Son. 

Dilworth, W, //".—The History of the Conquest 
of Mexico, by the celebrated Hernan Cortez. Glas- 
gow, 1785. Printed for the booksellers. 

Dunbar, E. £.— The Mexican Papers. New 
York, i860. J. A. H. Hasbrouck & Co., printers. 

Egloff stein, F. W., Baron. — Contributions to the 
Geology and the Physical Geography of Mexico. 
New York, 1864. D. Appleton & Co. 



1 4 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Elton, J. iv- With the French in Mexico. Phil- 
adelphia, 1867. J. P. Lippincott & Co. 

Evans, A. S. — Our Sister Republic ; a gala Trip 
through tropical Mexico in 1 869-1 870. Hartford, 
1870. Columbian Book Co. Is observations of the 
author while traveling as one of Hon. W. H. Sew- 
ard's party. 

Farnham, T. J. — Mexico : its Geography, its Peo- 
ple, and its Institutions. New York, 1846. H. 
Long & Brother. 

Fergusons Anecdotical Guide to Mexico. Phila- 
delphia, 1876. Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. 

Ferry, Gabriel. — Vagabond Life in Mexico. New 
York, 1856. Harper & Brothers. 

Flint, Henry M. — Mexico under Maximilian. 
New York, 1867. National Publishing Co. A de- 
fense of Maximilian's rule. 

Folsom. — Mexico in 1842. New York, 1842. 
Wiley & Putnam. 

Froebel, J. — Seven Years' Travel in Central Amer- 
ica, Northern Mexico, and the Far West of the 
United States. London, 1869. Richard Bentley. 
This is chiefly on Northern Mexico, and the terri- 
tory ceded to the United States. 

Frosty John. — Pictorial History of Mexico and 
the Mexican War. Philadelphia, 1848. James A. 
Bill. 

Gage, Thomas. — A New Survey of the West 



THE A UTHORITIES. 141 

Indies. A journey of 3,300 miles within the main- 
land of America. London, 1655. E. Cotes. 

Gallatin, Albert. — Notes on the Semi-civilized 
Nations of Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America. 
In Transactions of American Ethnological Society, 
vol. i. 

Geiger, John L. — A Peep at Mexico. London, 
1874. Trubner & Co. It contains forty-five pho- 
tographs of places. 

Gilliam, Albert M. — Travels over the Table-lands 
and Cordilleras of Mexico. Philadelphia, 1846. 
John W. Moore. 

Godoy, D. — Things most Remarkable observed 
by the Spanish at their First Coming to Mex- 
ico. In Purchas's Pilgrims, iii., p. 1 123 and fol- 
lowing. 

Gordon, T. F. — The History of Ancient Mexico. 
2 vols. Philadelphia, 1832. Published for the 
author. 

Gregory s History of Mexico. Boston, 1847. F. 
Gleason. 

Hall, Basil. — Extracts from a Journal written on 
the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico, in the years 
1821 and 1822. 2 vols. Edinburgh. Printed by 
Archibald Constable & Co. 

Halls of the Monteznmas ; or, Mexico in Ancient 
and Modern Times. New York, 1848. J. C. Bur- 
dick. 



142 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



Hardy, R. W. H. — Travels in the Interior of 
Mexico in 1825, '26, '27, and '28. London, 1829. 
Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley. 

Haven, Gilbert. — Our Next-Door Neighbor ; a 
Winter in Mexico. New York, 1875. Harper & 
Brothers. 

Helps, Arthur. — The Spanish Conquest in Amer- 
ica, and its Relation to the History of Slavery and 
to the Government of the Colonies. 4 vols. Lon- 
don, 1855-61. J. W. Parker & Son. A portion of 
this treats of Mexico. 

Hill, S. S. — Travels in Peru and Mexico. 2 vols. 
London, i860. Longman, Green, Longman & 
Roberts. 

Humboldt, Alex, de (Baron). — Political Essay on 
New Spain. 4 vols. London, 1822. Longman, 
Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown. This is the most 
elaborate treatise on the resources of the South- 
west, or New Spain, that has ever been published. 
Its review of the products of the precious metals 
from the conquest to 1804 has been used as a basis 
for most all subsequent estimates. 

Humboldt, Alex. de. — Researches concerning the 
Institutions and Monuments of the Ancient In- 
habitants of America. London, 18 14. Longman, 
Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown. 

Kingsborough (Lord). — Antiquities of Mexico, 
comprising fac-similes of ancient Mexican paint- 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



143 



ings and hieroglyphics preserved in the Royal 
Libraries of Paris, Berlin, and Dresden : in the Im- 
perial Library of Vienna ; in the Vatican Library ; 
in the Borgian Museum at Rome ; in the Library 
of the Institute at Bologna ; and in the Bodleian 
Library at Oxford, together with the monuments 
of New Spain, by M. Dupaix, with their respective 
scales of measurement and accompanying descrip- 
tions. The whole illustrated by many valuable un- 
edited MSS., by Augustine Aglio. In 9 vols. Lon- 
don, 1830. A. Aglia. This is one of the costli- 
est and most magnificent works ever published in 
the world. Allibone says that the preparation of 
the first seven volumes cost £32,000 or $160,000.* 

Kingsley, Miss. — South by West ; or, Winter 
in the Rocky Mountains, and Spring in Mexico. 
London, 1874. W. Isbeter & Co. 

Kollonitz, Paula (Countess). — The Court of Mex- 
ico. London, 1867. Saunders, Otley & Co. 

Latrobe, J. — The Rambler in Mexico. New 
York, 1836. Harper & Brothers. 

Lempriere, C. — Notes on Mexico in 1861 and 
1862, politically and socially considered. London, 
1862. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & 
Green. 

Lozver California : Its Geography and Character- 

* See Allibone's " Dictionary of Authors," and " Bibliotheca Amer- 
icana Nova," by O. Rich, p. 234. 



144 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

istics, with a sketch of the grant and purposes of 
the Lower California Company. New York, 1868. 
M. B. Brown & Co., Printers. 

Lyon, G. F. — Journal of a Residence and Tour 
in the Republic of Mexico in the Year 1826. 2 
vols. London, 1828. John Murray. 

Lyon, G. F. — The Sketch -Book during Eight 
Months' Residence in the Republic of Mexico. 
New York, 1827. J. Dickinson. A collection of 
curious and interesting pictures. 

McSherry, Richard. — El Puchero ; or, a Mixed 
Dish from Mexico. Philadelphia, 1850. Lippin- 
cott, Grambo & Co. 

Mason, R. H. — Pictures of Life in Mexico. 2 
vols. London, 1852. Smith, Elder & Co. 

Mayer, Br ant z. — Mexico ; Aztec, Spanish, and 
Republican. A historical, geographical, political, 
statistical, and social account of that country. 2 
vols. Hartford, 1852. S. Drake & Co. This is the 
most elaborate history of Mexico in the English 
language. 

Mayer, Br ant z. — Observations on Mexican His- 
tory and Archaeology. Washington, 1856. In 
Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. ix. 

Mayer, Brantz. — Mexico as it Was and as it Is. 
Philadelphia, 1847. G. B. Zieber. 

Menonville, M., Nicholas, Joseph Thierry de. — Tra- 
vels to Guaxaca. In Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. xiii. 



THE AUTHORITIES. 145 

Mexico : The Country, History, and People. Lon- 
don, 1863. Published by the Religious Tract So- 
ciety. 

Mexico : A Trip to ; or, Recollections of a Ten 
Months' Ramble. By a Barrister. London, 185 1. 
Smith, Elder & Co. 

Mexico : The Modern Traveller. A popular De- 
scription, Geographical, Historical and Topographi- 
cal. 2 vols. Boston, 1830. Wells & Lilly. 

Mexico : A Sketch of the Customs and Society 
during 1824, 1825, and 1826. London, 1828. Long- 
man & Co. 

Mill, Nicholas. — History of Mexico. London, 
1824. Sherwood, Jones & Co. 

Niles, John M.— History of South America and 
Mexico, * * * to which is annexed a Geographical 
and Historical View of Texas, by L. T. Pease. 2 
vols. Hartford, 1839. H. Huntington, Jr. 

Norman, B. M. — Rambles by Land and Water ; 
or, Notes of Travel in Cuba and Mexico. New 
York, 1845. Paine & Burgess. 

Philips, M. — Voyage to Mexico in 1568. In Hak- 
luyt's Voyages, vol. iii., p. 558. 

Phillips, John. — Mexico Illustrated in Twenty-six 
Drawings. London. E. Atchley. A collection of 
large and magnificent lithographs, illustrating build- 
ings, cities, and scenery in Mexico. 

Poinsett, J. R. — Notes on Mexico in the Autumn 
7 



I 4 6 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

of 1822, accompanied by a historical Sketch of the 
Revolution. Philadelphia, 1824. H. C. Carey & I. 
Lea. 

Prescott, W. H. — History of the Conquest of 
Mexico, with a Preliminary View of the Ancient 
American Civilization and the Life of the Con- 
queror, Hernando Cortez. 3 vols. New York, 1849. 
Harper & Brothers. 

Rankin, Malinda. — Twenty Years among the 
Mexicans. Cincinnati, 1875. Chase & Hall. 

Ranking, John. — Historical Researches on the 
Conquest of Peru and Mexico, Bogota, Natchez, 
and Talomeco in the Thirteenth Century, by the 
Mongols, accompanied with Elephants. London, 
1827. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green. 
This contains an interesting description of the an- 
cient city of Mexico. 

Report of the Committee of Investigation sent in 
1873 by the Mexican Government to the Frontier 
of Texas. New York, 1875. Baker & Godwin, 
printers. 

Robertson, Wm. P. — A Visit to Mexico. 2 vols. 
London, 1853. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 

Robinson, F. — Mexico and her Military Chieftains, 
from the Revolution of Hidalgo to the Present 
Time. Philadelphia, 1847. E- H. Butler & Co. 

Robinson, W. D. — Memoirs of the Mexican Revo- 
lution. Philadelphia, 1820. Printed for the author. 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



H7 



Ruxton, G. F. — Adventures in Mexico and the 
Rocky Mountains. New York, 1848. Harper & 
Brothers. 

Salm Salm, F. {Prince.) — My Diary in Mexico in 
1 861, including the Last Days of the Emperor 
Maximilian, with Leaves from the Diary of Prin- 
cess Salm Salm. 2 vols. London, 1868. 

Sartorius, C. — Mexico : Landscapes and Popular 
Sketches. London, 1859. Triibner & Co. Very 
finely illustrated. 

SJiepard, A. K. — The Land of the Aztecs; or, 
Two Years in Mexico. Albany, 1859. Weed, Par- 
sons & Co. 

Shnfeldt, Robert W. } Captain U. S. Navy. — Re- 
ports of Explorations and Surveys to ascertain the 
Practicability of a Ship Canal between the Atlantic 
and Pacific Oceans by the way of the Isthmus of 
Tehuantepec. Washington, 1872. 

Simon, B. A. {Mrs.) — The Ten Tribes of Israel 
historically identified with the Aborigines of the 
Western Hemisphere. London, 1836. R. B. Seeley 
& W. Burnside. This chiefly on Mexico. 

Skinner, J. E. H. — After the Storm ; or, Jonathan 
and his Neighbors in 1865-1866. 2 vols. London, 
1866. Richard Bentley. Part of vol. ii. is on 
Mexico. 

So/is, Antonio de. — History of the Conquest of 
Mexico by the Spaniards. 2 vols. London, 1753. 



148 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



On page 317 of vol. i. there is a fine view of the 
ancient Aztec city of Mexico. 

Stephens, John L. — Incidents of Travel in Central 
America, Chiapa, and Yucatan. 2 vols. New York, 
1841. Harper & Brothers. 

Stephens, John L. — Incidents of Travel in Yuca- 
tan. 2 vols. New York, 1843. Harper & Brothers. 
Illustrated by 120 engravings. 

Squier, E. G. — Observations on the Chalchihuitl 
of Mexico and Central America. New York, 1869. 

Stapp, W. P.— The Prisoners of Perote. Phila- 
delphia, 1845. G. B. Zieber & Co. 

Taylor, A. S. — Settlement and Exploration of 
Lower California. In Ross Browne's " Resources 
of Pacific States." 

Tempsky, G. F. vo?t. — Mitla ; a Narrative of Inci- 
dents and Personal Adventures on a Journey in 
Mexico, Guatemala, and Salvador. London, 1858. 
Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts. 

Thompson, Waddy. — Recollections of Mexico. 
New York, 1846. Wiley & Putnam. 

Tomson, Robert, The Voyage of, to New Spain, 
in 1555. In Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii., p. 531 and 
following. 

Tylor, Edward B. — Anahuac ; or, Mexico and the 
Mexicans, Ancient and Modern. London, 1861. 
Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts. 

Ulloa, Francisco. — Voyage from Acapulco up the 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



149 



Western Coast of Mexico in 1539. In Hakluyt's 
Voyages, iii., p. 473. 

Vigne, G. T. — Travels in Mexico, South Amer- 
ica, etc. London, 1863. 2 vols. W. H. Allen 
&Co. 

Wallace, Lew. — The Fair God ; or, The Last of 
the Tzins. A tale of the conquest of Mexico. 
Boston, 1873. James R. Osgood & Co. 

Ward, H. G. — Mexico in 1827. 2 vols. London, 
1828. Henry Colburn. This is an official report 
to the British Government by the author, who was 
her Majesty's Charge d'Affaires in Mexico from 
1825-1827. Next to Baron Humboldt's work, it is 
the most elaborate work on the resources of New 
Spain in the English language. It treats very fully 
of the precious metals. 

Wilson, R.A. — A New History of the Conquest 
of Mexico. Philadelphia, 1859. James Challen & 
Son. 

Wilson, R. A. — Mexico and its Religion. New 
York, 1855. Harper & Brothers. 

Young, Philip. — History of Mexico from 1520 to 
1847. Cincinnati, 1847. J- A - & U. P. James. 

THE AUTHORITIES ON CALIFORNIA. 

Allsop, R*— California and its Gold Mines. 1853. 
Groombridge. 



150 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Bancrofts Tourist's Guide. San Francisco, 1871. 
A. L. Bancroft & Co. 

Binney* — California Homes for Educated Eng- 
lishmen. 1875. Simp. 

Blake* — Geological Reconnoissance. New York, 
1859. 

Borthwick, J. D. — Three Years in California. 
Edinburgh, 1857. Wm. Blackwood & Sons. 

Brace, C. L. — The New West ; or, California in 
1867-1868. New York, 1869. G. P. Putnam & Son. 

Brooks, J. T. — Four Months among the Gold- 
finders in Alta California. London, 1849. David 
Bogue. 

Bryant, Edwin. — What I saw in California. New 
York, 1848. D. Appleton & Co. 

Buffum, E. G. — Six Months in the Gold Mines. 
Philadelphia, 1 850. Lea & Blanchard. 

California : * its Past History, its Present Posi- 
tion. London, 1850. 

California and her Gold Regions. (Anon.) Phila- 
delphia, 1849. G - B - Zieber > Agent. 
JGtdHvrn ia ^' iA ifi. i * h i 8 4 6 r- Wiley.— So-***-*; ~* ^/^y^ 1 f * 

California : * Agricultural Resources. Troy, 
1856. 

Capron, E. S. — History of California from its 
Discovery to the Present Time. Boston, 1854. J. 
P. Jewett & Co. 

Chappe de Aateroche, J.— Voyage to California 



THE A UTHORITIES. j 5 r 

to observe the Transit of Venus. London, 1778. 
Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly. 

Colton, Walter. — Three Years in California. New 
York, 1850. A. S. Barnes & Co. 

Cone, Mary. — Two Years in California. Chicago, 
1876. S. C. Griggs & Co. 

Cronise, T. F. — The Natural Wealth of California. 
San Francisco, 1868. H. H. Bancroft & Co. 

Cutts, J. Madison. — The Conquest of California 
and New Mexico. Philadelphia, 1847. Carey & Hart. 

Delano, A. — Life on the Plains and among the 
Diggings; an Overland Journey to California. Au- 
burn, 1854. Miller, Orton & Mulligan. 

Drake, Sir Francis. — Voyage to California. In 
Hakluyt's Voyages, iii. 523, etc. 

Dunbar, Edward E. — The Romance of the Age ; 
or, The Discovery of Gold in California. New 
York, 1867. D. Appleton & Co. 

Evans, A. S. — A la California ; Sketches of Life 
in the Golden State. San Francisco, 1873. A. L. 
Bancroft & Co. 

Farnham, J. T. — The Early Days of California. 
Philadelphia, 1862. John E. Potter. 

Farnham, J. T. — Life, Adventures, and Travel in 
California, to which is added the Conquest of Cali- 
fornia. New York, 1849. Nafis & Cornish. 

Farnham, E. W. — California, Indoors and Out. 
New York, 1856. Dix, Edwards & Co. 



152 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



Fisher, W. M. — The Californians. New York, 
1876. Macmillan & Co. 

Foster, G. G. — The Gold Regions of California. 
New York, 1848. Dewitt & Davenport. 

Fremont, J. C. — Geographical Memoir of Upper 
California. Washington, 1848. Sen. Miscellaneous 
Doc. 148 ; 1st sess. 30th Congress. 

Fremont and Emory. — Notes of Travel in Califor- 
nia. New York, 1849. D. Appleton & Co. ■ 

Frost, John. — History of the State of California. 
Auburn, 1850. Derby & Miller. 

Frowd, J. G. P. — Six Months in California. Lon- 
don, 1872. Longman, Green & Co. 

Greeley, Horace. — An Overland Journey from New 
York to San Francisco. New York, i860. C. M. 
Caxton, Barker & Co. 

Greenhow, R. — History of Oregon and California. 
Boston, 1844. C. C. Little & James Brown. 

Hittell, John S. — The Resources of California, 
San Francisco, 1874. A. Roman & Co. 

Hittell, John S. — Yosemite. Its Wonders, and its 
Beauties. San Francisco, 1868. H. H. Bancroft 
& Co. Illustrated with twenty photographs. 

Helper, H. R. — The Land of Gold ; Reality vs. 
Fiction. New York, 1855. Henry Taylor. 
. Holmes, Henry A. — Our Knowledge of California 
and the Northwest Coast one Hundred Years since. 
Albany, 1870. Joel Munsell. 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



153 



How to get Rich in California. A History of the v 
Progress and present Condition of the Gold and Sil- 
ver Mining and other industrial Interests. Phila- 
delphia, 1876. McMorris & Gans. A valuable sta- 
tistical work. / ^- 

Huntley, Sir H — California : its Gold and its 
Inhabitants. 2 vols. London, 1856. Thomas C. 
Newby. 

Hut citings, J. M. — Scenes of Wonder and Curios- 
ity in California. Illustrated with over one hun- 
dred engravings. A Tourist's Guide to the Yo- 
semite Valley. New York, and San Francisco, 
1870. A. Roman & Co. 

Johnson, T. T. — Sights in the Gold Region. 
New York, 1850. Baker & Scribner. 

Kelley, Wm. — An Excursion to California. Lon- 
don, 185 1. 2 vols. Chapman & Hall. 

Kneeland, Samuel {Pro/.). — The Wonders of the 
Yosemite Valley, and of California. Boston, 1871. 
Alexander Moore. It contains excellent photo- 
graphic views. 

Letts, y. M.— California Illustrated. New York, 
1852. W. Holdrege. It contains a large number 
of fine lithographic views. 

Lyman, Albert. — Journal of a Voyage to Califor- 
nia, and Life in the Gold Diggings. Hartford, 1852. 
E. T. Pease. 

7* 



154 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

McCollum, W. S* — California as I saw it. Buf- 
falo, 1850. 

Marryat, Frank. — Mountains and Mole-Hills; or, 
Recollections of a Burnt Journal. New York, 1855, 
Harper & Brothers. 

Nordhoff, Charles. — Northern California, Oregon, 
and the Sandwich Islands. New York, 1874. Har- 
per & Brothers. 

Nordhoff, Charles.— Health, Pleasure, and Resi- 
dence. New York, 1872. Harper & Brothers. 
This is one of the best descriptions of California. 
Is well illustrated. 

Norman, Lucia. — A Youth's History of Califor- 
nia. San Francisco, 1867. A. Roman & Co. 

Notes on California and the Placers. New York, 
1850. Harper & Brothers. 

Olden, W. R. — A Series of Articles on Southern 
California. Anaheim, California, 1875. 

Palmer, % W.— The New and the Old ; or, Cali- 
fornia and India in Romantic Aspects. New 
York, 1859. Rudd & Carleton. 

Parkman. — Travels of the Jesuits. 2 vols. Lon- 
don, 1762. Printed for T. Piety. Vol. i. contains 
an account of the missions of California. 

Pioneers, First Annual of. San Francisco, 1877. 
Printed by W. M. Hinton & Co. 

Porquet, F. de* — California Phrase Book, 185 1. 
Simpkin. 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



155 



Pioneer* — 4 vols. San Francisco, 1854-185 5. 

Powell, J. J. — The Golden State and its Re- 
sources. San Francisco, 1874. Bacon & Co. 

Revere, J. W. — Tour of Duty in California. New 
York. 1869. C. S. Francis & Co. 

Ringold, C. — A Series of Charts, with Sailing 
Directions, embracing Surveys of Bays and Rivers 
of California. Washington, 1851. 

Robinson, A. — Life in California. New York, 
1846. Wiley & Putnam. 

Robinson, Fayette. — California and its Gold Re- 
gions. New York, 1849. Stringer & Townsend. 

Ryan, W. R. — Personal Adventures in Upper and 
Lower California. 2 vols. London, 1850. Wm. 
Shoberl. 

Saxon, Isabella. — Five Years within the Golden 
Gate. London, 1868. Chapman & Hall. A de- 
scription of social life. 

Seward, W. H. — Speech in the Senate of the 
United States on the Admission of California. 
March 11, 1850. Washington, 1850. 

Seyd, Ernest. — California and its Resources. A 
Work for the Merchant, the Capitalist, and the Em- 
igrant. London, 1858. Triibner & Co. 

Shuck, O. T.* — The California Scrap Book. San 
Francisco, 1869. 

Stillman, J. D. B. — Seeking the Golden Fleece. 
A record of pioneer life in California. To which is 



156 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

annexed Footprints of Early Navigators, other than 
Spanish, in California. San Francisco, 1877. A. 
Roman & Co. 

Taylor, Wm. — California Life Illustrated. New 
York, 1858. Published for the author. 

Thompson, G. A* — California and Pacific. 1849. 
Simpkin. 

Thornton, J. Q. — Oregon and California in 1848. 
New York, 1849. Harper & Brothers. 

Todd, J. — The Sunset Land. Boston, 1870. 
Lee & Shepard. 

Truman, B. C. — Semi-tropical California. San 
Francisco, 1874. A. L. Bancroft & Co. 

Turrill, Charles B. — California Notes. San 
Francisco, 1876. Edward Bosqui & Co., print- 
ers. 

Tut hill, Franklin. — The History of California. 
San Francisco, 1866. H. H. Bancroft & Co. It 
gives a list of the governors under Spain, treats of 
the Jesuits, Franciscans, land-titles, etc. 

Tyson, James L. — Diary of a Physician in Cali- 
fornia. New York, 1850. D. Appleton & Co. 

Tyson, Philip T. — Geology and Industrial Re- 
sources of California. Exec. Doc, 1st sess., 31st 
Congress. 

Udell, J.— Incidents of Travel in California. Jef- 
ferson, O., 1856. Printed for the author. 

Venegas, M.—K Natural and Civil History of 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



157 



California. 2 vols. London, 1759. Printed for 
James Rivington. 

Weed, Joseph. — A View of California as It is. 
San Francisco, 1874. Bynon & Wright. 

Werth, John J. — A Dissertation on the Re- 
sources and Policy of California. Benicia, Cal. 
St. Clair & Pinkham. 

Whitney, J. D. — Geological Survey of California. 
Printed by authority of the Legislature. 

Woods, D. B. — Sixteen Months in the Gold Dig- 
gings. New York, 1 85 1. Harper & Brothers. 

Wyld, J*— Guide to the Gold Regions. 1850. 
Strange. 

THE AUTHORITIES ON TEXAS. 

Baker, D. W. C. — A Brief History of Texas. New 
York, 1873. A. S. Barnes & Co. 

Baker, D. W. C. — A Texas Scrap-Book, made up 
of the History, Biography, and Miscellany of Texas 
and its People. New York, 1875. A. S. Barnes & 
Co. 

Barrow, John. — Facts relating to Northeastern 
Texas. London, 1849. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 

Bonne//, G. W. — Topographical Description of 
Texas. Austin, 1840. Clark, Wing & Brown. 

Brady, ^//z.— Glimpses of Texas. Houston, 
1871. 



158 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



Braman, D. E. E. — Information about Texas. 
Philadelphia, 1857. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 

Cordova, J. D. — Texas, her Resources and her 
Public Men. Philadelphia, 1858. E. Crozet. 

Dewees, W. B* — Letters from an Early Settler 
of Texas. Louisville, 1852. 

Edwards, D. B. — History of Texas ; or, Emi- 
grants', Farmers', and Politicians' Guide. Cincin- 
nati, 1836. J. A. James & Co. It treats of the 
colonization laws. 

Flack, Capt. — The Texan Rifle Hunter ; or, Field 
Sports on the Prairie. London, 1866. John Max- 
well & Co. 

Foot, H. S. — Texas and the Texans ; or, Advance 
of the Anglo-Americans to the Southwest. Phila- 
delphia, 1 841. 2 vols. Thomas Cowperthwaite & 
Co. It treats of the Spanish colonial policy, Aaron 
Burr's scheme, etc. 

Forney, John W. — What I Saw in Texas. Phila- 
delphia, 1872. Ringwalt & Brown. 

Gouge, W. M. — Fiscal History of Texas ; its Re- 
venues, Debts, and Currency, 1834-1852. Phila- 
delphia, 1852. Lippincott, Grambo & Co. 

Green, T. J. — Journal of the Texian Expedition 
against Mier. New York, 1845. Harper & Brothers. 

Greeley, Horace. — Letters from Texas and the 
Lower Mississippi. New York, 1871. Tribune 
Office. 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



159 



Holley, Mary Austin (Mrs.). — Texas. Lexington, 
1836. J. Clarke & Co. 

Hooton, Chatles. — St. Louis Isle; or, Texiana. 
London, 1847. Simmons & Ward. 

Houston, M. C. (Mrs.). — Texas and the Gulf of 
Mexico. Philadelphia, 1845. G. B. Zieber. 

Ikitiy A* — Texas, 1841. Sherwood. 

Jones, A. — Memoranda and Official Correspond- 
ence relating to the Republic of Texas ; its His- 
tory and Annexation. New York, 1859. D. Ap- 
pleton & Co. 

Kennedy, Wm. — Texas ; its Geography, Natural 
History, and Topography. New York, 1844. Ben- 
jamin & Young. 

Kennedy, Wm. — Texas ; the Rise, Progress, and 
Prospects. 2 vols. London, 1841. R. Hastings. 

McCalla, W. L. — Adventures in Texas. Phila- 
delphia, 1 841. Printed for the author. 

Maillard, N.D.—The History of the Republic of 
Texas, from the Discovery of the Country to the 
Present Time and the Cause of her Separation from 
the Republic of Mexico. London, 1842. Smith, 
Elder & Co. 

Montgomery. — Eagle Pass ; or, Life on the Border. 
New York, 1852. G. P. Putnam & Co. 

Moore, F. — Description of Texas. New York, 
1844. T. R. Tanner. 

Morphis, J. M. — History of Texas from its Dis- 



I 6 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

covery and Settlement. New York, 1874. United 
States Publishing Company. 

Newell, C. — History of the Revolution in Texas. 
New York, 1838. Wiley & Putnam. 

Olmstead, F. L. — A Journey through Texas. New 
York, 1857. Dix, Edwards & Co. 

Parker, W. B. — Notes taken during the Expedi- 
tion by Captain R. B. Marcy through Unexplored 
Texas. Philadelphia, 1856. Hayes & Zell. 

Pease, L. T. — Geographical and Historical View 
of Texas. In appendix of Niles's " History of 
Mexico." 

Prairiedom. — Rambles and Scrambles in Texas. 
New York, 1845. Paine & Burgess. 

Probus. — The Texan Revolution, 1842. 

Protest. — The Anti-Texass Legion. Protest of 
some Freemen, States, and Presses against the 
Texass Rebellion against the Laws of Nature and 
of Nations. Albany, 1845. Extremely radical. 

Rankin, Melinda. — Texas in 1850. Boston, 1850. 
Damrell & Moore. 

Smith, E* — Northeastern Texas, 1849. Ham- 
ilton. 

Stiff, E. — The Texan Emigrant. Cincinnati, 
1840. George Conclin. 

Texas. — A Visit to Texas, being the Journal of a 
Traveller. New York, 1834. Goodrich & Wiley. 

Texas* A New History of. Cincinnati, 1848. 



THE AUTHORITIES. 161 

Texas, History of; or, The Emigrant's Guide 
to the New Republic. New York, 1845. Nans & 
Cornish. 

Texas. — An English Question. (Anon.) Lon- 
don, 1837. E. Wilson. 

Texas* — Its Soil and Advantages. E. Wilson, 
1848. 

Thrall, H. S. — A History of Texas from the \/ 
Earliest Settlements to the Year 1876. New York, 
1876. University Publishing Co. 

Western Texas the Australia of America; or, The 
Place to Live. Cincinnati, i860. 

Woodman, David, Jr. — Guide to Texas Emi- 
grants. Boston, 1835. Printed by M. Hawees. 

Yoakum, H. — History of Texas from its First 
Settlement in 1685 to its Annexation to the United 
States in 1846. 2 vols. New York, 1855. Red- 
field. This is the most complete history of Texas 
yet published. 

In addition to the many Spanish records and 
manuscripts relating to Texas, believed to be in 
existence in Mexico and Spain, and the above list 
of works in English, there is an unpublished man- 
uscript by a Swiss scientist and explorer, which 
probably contains as valuable information about 
the State of Texas as was ever written. We allude 
to the Berlandier manuscript, which is more fully 
described in a subsequent list. 



l62 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

THE AUTHORITIES ON NEW MEXICO. 

d!$ert y J. W. — Report of his Examination of 
New Mexico in 1846-1847. Washington, 1848. 
Executive Document 41. 

Amy, W. F. M. — Interesting Items regarding 
New Mexico. Its Agricultural, Mineral, and Pas- 
toral Resources. Santa Fe, 1873. Manderfield & 
Tucker, printers. 

Brevort, Elias. — New Mexico : her Resources 
and Attractions. Santa Fe, 1874. 

Carleton, J. H. — Diary of an Excursion to the 
Ruins of Abo, etc., in New Mexico. In Smith- 
sonian Report, 1854, p. 296, etc. 

Clever ', Charles P. — New Mexico : her Resources, 
etc. Washington, 1868. 

Davis, VV. W. H. — The Spanish Conquest of New 
Mexico. Doylestown, Pa., 1869. A thorough, in- 
structive, and highly entertaining work. 

Davis, W. W. H. — El Gringo ; or, New Mexico 
and her People. New York, 1857. Harper & Bro- 
thers. A description of social life in New Mexico. 

Edwards, Frank S. — A Campaign in New Mex- 
ico with Colonel Doniphan's Expedition. Phila- 
delphia,, 1847. Carey & Hart. 

Elkins, S. B.- — Speech in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, May 21, 1874, on the Proposed Admis- 



THE A UTHORITIES. 163 

sion to the Union of New Mexico. In Con- 
gressional Record, pp. 295-302. 

Espcjo, Antonio de, Voyage of, to New Mexico m 
1582. In Hakluyt's " Voyages," iii. 464, etc. 

Hnghcs, J. T. — Account of the Conquest of New 
Mexico. Cincinnati, 1848. In his "Doniphan's 
Expedition." 

McParlin, Thomas A. — Notes on the History and 
Climate of New Mexico. In Smithsonian Report, 
1876. 

Meline, James F. — Two Thousand Miles on 
Horseback ; Santa Fe and Back. New York, 1867. 
Hurd & Houghton. Is chiefly on New Mexico, 

Rnffner, Lieutenant. — A Political Problem ; New 
Mexico and the New Mexicans. 1876. 

Ruis, F?'iar Angustin. — Exploration of, to New 
Mexico in 1581. In Hakluyt's "Voyages," iii., p. 
464, etc. 

Simpson, J. H. — Report of Exploration and Sur- 
vey, from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Santa Fe\ 
House Executive Doc. 45 ; 1st sess. 31st Con- 



A large portion of the authorities on this Terri- 
tory will be found in the subsequent list of works 
too general for the above territorial classification, 
such as reports of surveys, boundary commissions, 
etc. Spanish works and records on the history of 



164 THE SILVER COUNTRY, 

New Mexico are very abundant; and when the 
Territory becomes more developed and populous, 
those authorities will be sought for, and doubtless 
translated into English. The recent official report 
on public libraries, in alluding to the libraries of 
New Mexico in 1850, says: " The library then con- 
tained the manuscript records of the Territory 
dating back more than three hundred years. This 
collection of records is probably the oldest in the 
United States."* 



THE AUTHORITIES ON ARIZONA. 

Cozzens, S. W. — The Marvellous Country ; or, 
Three Years in Arizona and New Mexico. Boston, 
1873. Shepard & Gill. 

Hodge, Hiram C. — Arizona as It is ; or, The Com- 
ing Country. New York, 1877. Hurd & Hough- 
ton. 

Johnson, Chas. G.* — History of the Territory of 
Arizona. San Francisco, 1868. 

McCormick, Richard C. — Arizona ; its Resources 
and Prospects. New York, 1865. D. Van Nos- 
trand. 

Mowry, Sylvester. — Arizona and Sonora. New 

"Public Libraries of the United States." Washington, 1876. See 
p. 294. 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



I6 5 



York, 1864. Harper & Brothers. This is chiefly on 
the mines of Arizona. 

Pumpelly, R. — Across America and Asia; Notes 
of a Five Years' Journey around the World, and of 
Residence in Arizona, Japan, and China. New 
York, 1870. Leypoldt & Holt. 

Safford, A. P. isT.— The Territory of Arizona: a 
brief History and Summary. Tucson, 1874. 

A large portion of the authorities on this Terri- 
tory, as well as New Mexico, will be found in the 
subsequent list of works too general for the above 
territorial classification, such as Government and 
Pacific Railroad surveys and reports, etc. 

Like Texas, New Mexico, and California, it was 
extensively written up by the Spanish when they 
were in possession of New Spain, and those works 
will some time be sufficiently needed to justify 
translations. 

THE AUTHORITIES ON COLORADO. 

Blackmore, W. — Colorado and Emigration. Lon- 
don, 1869. Low. 

Bowles, S. — Colorado the Switzerland of Amer- 
ica. Boston, 1869. Lee & Shepard. 

Colorado: Its Resources, Parks, and Prospects, 
as a new Field for Emigration. London, 1869. 
Rankin & Co. 



166 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Fossett, Frank. — Colorado ; a Historical, Descrip- 
tive, and Statistical Work on the Rocky Mountains' 
Gold and Silver Mining Regions. Denver, 1876. 
Jy Greatorex, E.* — Summer Etchings in Colorado. 
London, 1874. 

Pangborn, J. G. — The Rocky Mountain Tourist. 
Topeka, Kans., 1877. T. J. Anderson. This is 
chiefly on that portion of New Spain lying within 
the limits of Colorado which is intersected by the 
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. 

Taylor, Bayard. — Colorado ; a Summer Trip. 
New York, 1867. G. P. Putnam & Son. 

Whitney, J. P. — Colorado in the United States 
of America. London, 1867. Cassell, Petter & 
Galpin. 

Many other authorities on the southern or Span- 
ish portion of Colorado, such as Simpson's ac- 
count of Coronado's expedition, Hayden's surveys, 
Wheeler's surveys, etc., etc., will be found in a sub- 
sequent list, but are too general for this classifica- 
tion. 

THE AUTHORITIES ON NEVADA. 

The history of this State is chiefly the history of 
mines and mining, and very little has been written 
on the State in separate books. 

The annual reports of the United State Commis- 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



167 



sioner of Mining Statistics, and other works on 
precious metals, contain the most of the informa- 
tion yet published. 

The subject is rich enough to deserve a better 
supply of authorities. The following is the com- 
mencement of its future store of written history: 

Powell, J\ J. — Nevada ; the Land of Silver. San 
Francisco, 1876. Bacon & Co. 

Qnille, Dan de (Win. Wright). — History of the 
Big Bonanza ; an Authentic Account of the Dis- 
covery, History, and Working of the world-re- 
nowned Comstock Silver Lode of Nevada. Hart- 
ford, 1876. American Publishing Co. 

THE AUTHORITIES ON UTAH. 

Bonwick, J. — The Mormons and the Silver Mines. 
London, 1872. Hodder & Stoughton. 

Burton, R. F. — The City of the Saints. London, 
1861. Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts. 

C /landless, Wm. — A Visit to Salt Lake. London, 
1857. Smith, Elder & Co. 

Codman, John. — The Mormon Country. New 
York, 1874. United States Publishing Co. 

Murphy, J. R. — The Mineral Resources of Utah. 
San Francisco, 1872. A. L. Bancroft & Co. 

Remy and Brenchley. — A Journey to Great Salt 
Lake. 2 vols. London. 1861. W. Jeffs. 



1 68 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Simpson, J. H. — Explorations across Utah. Wash- 
ington, 1876. 

Stansbury, Howard. — Explorations and Survey of 
the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Phila- 
delphia, 1852. Lippincott, Grambo & Co. 

As was stated in the forepart of this chapter, the 
list of authorities does not embrace pamphlets, 
legislative documents, works on the Mormon reli- 
gion, etc. By including the history of the Mor- 
mons, this list on Utah could be greatly extended. 

AUTHORITIES TOO GENERAL FOR THE ABOVE 
TERRITORIAL CLASSIFICATION. 

The most of the works embraced in this list are 
official, scientific, business-like, and for business 
purposes. As a rule they will not be found in the 
catalogues of public libraries classified with the 
authorities on the respective States or Territories 
of the Southwest, for they are too comprehensive 
and general for such classification. And as the 
Southwest, or New Spain, is a term unknown to 
catalogues, it is difficult for the general reader, 
who is investigating that part of the country, to 
find all of the authorities. This list is probably 
not complete, but the author trusts that it is near- 
ly so. 

Arispe, Don Miguel Ramos de. — Memorial on the 



THE A UTHORITIES. i6g 

Natural, Political, and Civil State of the Province 
of Cohaula in the Kingdoms of Mexico, and those 
of the new kingdoms of Leon, New Santander, and 
Texas. Translated from the Spanish. Philadel- 
phia, 1 8 14. 

Baldwin, J. D. — Ancient America. New York, 
1872. Harper & Brothers. 

Bancroft, H. H. — The Native Races of the 
Pacific States of North America. 5 vols. New 
York, 1876. D. Appleton & Co. Vol. i. on Wild 
Tribes. Vol. ii. on Civilized Nations. Vol. iii. on 
Myths and Languages. Vol. iv. on Antiquities. 
Vol. v. on Primitive History. This is one of the 
most elaborate works ever published in the United 
States ; and with the exception of the pages relat- 
ing to Central America, is chiefly on the native 
races of the country which constituted New Spain. 

Bartlett, J. R. — Personal Narrative of Explora- 
tions and Incidents in Texas, New Nexico, Cali- 
fornia, Sonora, and Chihuahua, connected with the 
United States and Mexican Boundary Commission 
during the years 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853. 2 vols. 
New York, 1854. D. Appleton & Co. Finely illus- 
trated. 

Bates, D. B. (Mrs.). — Incidents on Land and 
Water ; or, Four Years on the Pacific Coast. Bos- 
ton, 1857. Jones, French & Co. 

Baxley, H. W. — What I saw on the West Coast 
8 



170 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



of South and North America. New York, 1865. 
D. Appleton & Co. 

Bell, W. A. — New Tracks in North America. A 
journal of travel and adventure whilst engaged in 
the survey for a Southern Railroad to the Pacific 
Ocean during 1867-1868. 2 vols. London, 1869. 
Chapman & Hall. Illustrated. 

Berlandier, Luis. — The very elaborate work on 
New Spain, to the preparation of which this author 
devoted about twenty years' time, has never been 
published. Judging from the account of it given 
in the Smithsonian Report for 1854, it must be as 
elaborate as the works, on the same subject, by 
Baron Humboldt, and Ward, the British minister. 
The catalogue alone of these MSS. occupies over 
two pages of the appendix to the Smithsonian Re- 
port above mentioned. The following is a portion 
of the catalogue there given : 

" Travels in Mexico and Texas, 1826 to 1834 in- 
clusive, containing notes upon the statistics, early 
settlement and Indian tribes between the Sabine 
and Pacific, etc. 7 vols." 

"Travels in Mexico, 1828-1830. Comprising in- 
teresting notes of the early settlers of Texas by 
the Spanish and French ; account of the ancient 
Indian tribes, etc. etc. 3 vols." 

" Geography and Statistics of the Republic of 
Mexico." 



THE A UTHORITIES. j y j 

"Paintings of thirty different Indian tribes. 
I vol." 

" History of the Agriculture of Ancient and 
Modern Mexico. I vol." 

" Diary of the Commission of Limits in North- 
ern Mexico, 1830. 3 vols." 

In addition to the above, there was a detailed 
report on the topography, several volumes on me- 
teorology, much in regard to the Indian tribes, and 
a large number of maps. 

According to the report of the Secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institute, Dr. Berlandier was " a na- 
tive of Switzerland, and a member of the Academy 
of Geneva. He came to Mexico in 1826, for the 
purpose of making a scientific examination of that 
country. Soon after his arrival he was appointed 
one of the boundary commission, organized by the 
then new republic, with the object of defining the 
boundaries, extent, resources, etc., etc., of the north- 
ern or frontier States." * From the time of his 
arrival in Mexico, until his death in 1851, he was 
occupied in this detailed examination and review 
of the Southwest. About the time of his death an 
officer of the United States army, who was making 
a scientific exploration of Mexico in the interest 
of the Smithsonian Institute, learned of the MSS., 

* See Smithsonian Report for 1854, pp. 15 and 396-398. 



172 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



and purchased the same of Dr. Berlandier's widow. 
He sent the same for safe keeping to the Smith- 
sonian. The portion of the MSS. on meteorology 
was destroyed by the fire at the Smithsonian in 
1865. The rest was withdrawn and sold to some 
individual. It is to be hoped it will be published 
and accessible to the public. 

Bonnycastle, R. H. — Spanish America ; or, A De- 
scriptive, Historical, and Geographical Account of 
the Dominions of Spain in the Western Hemi- 
sphere. Philadelphia, 18 19. Abraham Small. This 
gives the political and territorial divisions and In- 
tendancies. 

Bowles, Samuel. — Across the Continent. New 
York, 1865. Hurd & Houghton. 

Box, M. J. — Adventures and Explorations in 
New and Old Mexico, being the record of ten 
years of travel and research, and a guide to the 
mineral treasures of Durango, Chihuahua, the 
Sierra Nevada (east side), Sinaloa and Sonora (Pa- 
cific side), and the Southern part of Arizona. New 
York, 1869. James Miller. 

Browne, J. Ross. — Adventures in the Apache 
Country. A Tour through Arizona and Sonora, 
with Notes on the Silver of Nevada. New York, 
1869. Harper & Brothers. 

Browne, J. Ross. — Resources of the Pacific States. 
A statistical and descriptive summary. 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



173 



With a sketch of the settlement and exploration 
of Lower California. New York, 1869. D. Apple- 
ton & Co. 

Browne, J. Ross. — Crusoe's Island, California, and 
Washoe. New York, 1864. Harper & Brothers. 

Burney, James. — A Chronological History of 
Discoveries in the South Sea. 5 vols. London, 
1 803-1 8 1 7. Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons. 

Butter fie Id, Carlos. — The United States and Mex- 
ican Mail Steamship Line. New York, i860. J. 
A. H. Hasbrouck & Co. 

Cabeza de Vaca. — The Shipwrecks of Alvar 
Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Relation. Washington, 
185 1. This contains an account of his overland 
trip through New Mexico and Arizona to meet 
Cortez' soldiers in Old Mexico. 

Carvalho, S. N. — Incidents of Travel and Ad- 
venture in the Far West with Colonel Fremont's 
last Expedition. New York, 1857. Darby & Jack- 
son. 

Casstn, John. — Illustrations of Birds of Califor- 
nia, Texas, etc. Philadelphia, 1856. J. B. Lippin- 
cott & Co. 

Champlain, S. de. — Voyage to Mexico, 1 599-1602. 
Translated by A. Wilmere. London, 1859. ^ n 
Hakluyt's "Voyages," v. 23. 

Chilton, J. — Voyage to New Spain, 1568. Lon- 
don, 1810. In Hakluyt's "Voyages," iii. 541, etc. 



1^4 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Coronado, Francisco Vasquez de, The Relation 
of, in regard to the Country of Cibola in New Mex- 
ico, and Arizona. In Hakluyt's " Voyages," iii. 
446, etc. 

Coulter, J. — Adventures on the West Coast of 
South America and California. 2 vols. London, 

1847. 
,> Cremony, John C. — Life among the Apaches. 

San Francisco, 1868. A. Roman & Co. 

Dana, R. H. — Two Years before the Mast. Bos- 
ton, 1869. Fields, Osgood & Co. 

DomenccJi, E. — Missionary Adventures in Texas 
and Mexico. London, 1858. Longman, Brown, 
Green, Longmans & Roberts. 

Domenech, E. — Seven Years' Residence in the 
Great Deserts of North America 2 vols. Lon- 
don, i860. Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts. 
Splendidly illustrated. 

Emory, W. H. — Notes of a Military Recon- 
noissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to 
San Diego, in California. Senate Exec. Doc. No. 
7 ; 1st sess., 30th Congress. 

Escalante, Father. — Summary of his Journal of 
an Expedition in 1776 from Santa Fe to Utah Lake 
and the Moqui Villages. In appendix of J. H. 
Simpson's " Explorations Across Utah." Washing- 
ton, 1872. 

Emory, William H. — Report on the United 



THE A UTHORITIES 



m 



States and Mexican Boundary Survey. 3 vols. 
Washington, 1857. Very finely illustrated. 

Vol. I. is descriptive of the country. 

Vol. II. is Report on the Botany. 

Vol. III. is Report on the Zoology. 

Forbes, Alexander. — California: A History of 
Upper and Lower California. London, 1839. 
Smith, Elder & Co. 

Graham, Lieut. -Col. — Report on the United States 
and Mexico Boundary Line. Senate Exec. Doc. 
No. 121 ; 32d Congress, 1st sess. 

Gray, Asa. — Plantae Wrightianse, an Account of 
a Collection of Plants made by Charles Wright in 
Texas and New Mexico in 1849. New York, 1852- 
1853. G. P. Putnam. Also Nos. 22 and 42 of 
" Smithsonian Contributions." 

Gregg, jfosiah. — Commerce of the Prairies ; or, 
The Journal of a Santa Fe Trader during Eight 
Expeditions across the Great Western Prairies, 
and a Residence of nearly Nine Years in Northern 
Mexico. 2 vols. New York, 1844. Henry G.Lang- 
ley. The first volume is chiefly on New Mexico. 

Hawks, Henry. — Voyage to New Spain, 1572. 
In Hakluyt's "Voyages," iii. 549, etc. 

Hayden, F. V. — Annual Reports of the United 
States Geological and Geographical Survey of the 
Territories to the Department of the Interior. 
Washington, 1867-1877. 



176 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

The Seventh Annual Report on the explorations 
of 1873 contains valuable information in regard to 
the geology and mining industry of that portion 
of Colorado lying within the limits of former New 
Spain. 

The Eighth Annual Report on the explorations 
of 1874 contains reports of the San Juan mines and 
the ancient ruins in Southwestern Colorado. 

The Ninth Annual Report on the explorations of 
1875 contains a report on the geology of the San 
Juan region. 

The Tenth Annual Report will contain a further 
account of the ancient ruins of Southwestern Colo- 
rado, New Mexico, and Arizona. 

In addition to the annual reports of Prof. Hay- 
den, there is among the miscellaneous publications 
a ''List of Elevations," by Henry Gannett, pub- 
lished in 1877, containing much interesting infor- 
mation about the elevations of the Southwest. 

There has also been prepared by this surveying 
expedition a series of elegant photographs, among 
which are views of the scenery and ancient ruins 
of New Mexico* Arizona, and the Spanish portion 
of Colorado. A collection of these photographs 
makes an important addition to the authorities on 
New Spain. 

Heap, Gwimt, Harris. — Central Route to the Pa- 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



1 77 



cific from the Valley of the Mississippi to Califor- 
nia. Illustrated. Philadelphia, 1854. Lippincott, 
Grambo & Co. This is a route from Missouri 
through New Spain to Los Angeles. 

Hughes, J. T. — Doniphan's Expedition, contain- 
ing an Account of the Conquest of New Mexico; 
General Kearney's Overland Expedition to Cali- 
fornia ; Doniphan's Campaign against the Nava- 
jos; his unparalleled March upon Chihuahua and 
Durango ; and the Operations of General Price at 
Santa Fe. Cincinnati, 1848. J. A. & U. P. James. 

Ives, J. C. — Report on the Colorado River of the 
West (36th Cong., 1st sess. ; House Exec. Doc. 90). 
Washington, 1861. 

Kendall, G. W. — Narrative of the Texan Santa 
Fe Expedition. 2 vols. New York, 1850. Harper 
& Brothers. 

Ker, H. — Travels through the Western Interior 
of the United States, with a particular Description 
of a great part of Mexico, or New Spain. Eliza- 
bethtown, New York, 1816. 

Las Casas, Bartholemew de. — An Account of the 
First Voyages and Discoveries made by the Spanish 
in America. By Don Bartholemew de las Casas, 
Bishop of Chiapa. London, 1699. 

Macomb, J. N. — Report of the Exploring Expe- 
dition from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Junction 
of the Grand and Green Rivers of the great Colo- 
8 



i;8 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



rado of the West in 1859. Finely illustrated. 
Washington, 1876. 

Mcllvaine, W. — Sketches of Scenery and Notes 
of Personal Adventure in California and Mexico. 
Illustrated. Philadelphia, 1850. 

Marcy, R. B. — Thirty Years of Army Life on the 
Border. London, 1866. Sampson Low, Son & 
Marston. 

Niza y Marco de. — A Relation touching his Dis- 
covery of Cenola, or Cibola, in New Mexico and 
Arizona. In Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii., 438, 
etc. 

Pacific Railroad. — Reports of Explorations and 
Surveys to ascertain the most practicable and eco- 
nomical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi 
River to the Pacific Ocean, made under the direc- 
tion of the Secretary of War. 12 vols. Washing- 
ton, 1855-1860. The following is not a complete 
table of contents of these twelve volumes, but an 
index to portions of interest in the investigation of 
the resources of the Southwest : 

Vol. I. contains a report by the Secretary of 
War reviewing the various reports submitted to 
him, and routes explored. 

Vol. II. contains a finely illustrated report by 
Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith on explorations near 
the 38th and 39th parallels. Also another report by 
Lieutenant Beckwith on explorations near the 41st 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



179 



parallel. A report by Captain John Pope on ex- 
plorations near the 320! parallel from the Red River 
to the Rio Grande. An illustrated report by John 
Torrey and Asa Gray on the botany along the 32d 
parallel. A report by Wm. P. Blake on the geo- 
logy near the $2d parallel. A report by Lieutenant 
John G. Parke on explorations for that portion of 
the 32d parallel route lying between Dona Ana, on 
the Rio Grande, and the Pima villages, on the Gila 
River. An extract from a report by Lieutenant- 
Colonel Emory on the region near the 32d parallel. 

Vols. III. and IV. contain a report, in six parts, 
by Lieutenant A. W. Whipple, assisted by Lieuten- 
ant J. C. Ives, on explorations near the 35th parallel. 
Part I. is a finely illustrated description of the jour- 
ney. It contains a description of Zuni, or the for- 
mer city of Cibola. Part II. is on the topographical 
features of the route. Part III. is on Indian tribes. 
Part IV. is on the geology. Part V. is on the bot- 
any of the route. 

Vol. V. contains a report, in four parts, by 
Lieutenant R. S. Williamson, on explorations in 
California for railroad routes to connect with those 
near the 32d and 35th parallels. Part I. is a finely 
illustrated description of the country. Part II. is 
an illustrated report on geology by W. P. Blake. 
Part III. is on botany. 

Vol. VII. contains a report, in three parts, by 



l8o THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Lieutenant John G. Park, on explorations from San 
Francisco Bay to Los Angeles, and from the Pimas 
villages, on the Gila River, to the Rio Grande near 
the 32d parallel. Part I. is a general report de- 
scriptive of the country and finely illustrated. Part 

II. is a report on the geology of the route. Part 

III. is on botany. 

Vol. XI. contains a review of the various explo- 
rations from 1800 to 1857, such as the explorations 
of Lewis and Clarke, Bonneville, Simpson, Fre- 
mont, and many others. It also contains maps, 
profiles, and elaborate sketches illustrating the con- 
tents of preceding volumes. 

Palmer, Wm. J. — Report of Surveys across the 
Continent, in 1867-8, for a Route extending the 
Kansas Pacific Railway to the Pacific Ocean at San 
Francisco and San Diego. Philadelphia, 1869. W. 
B. Selheimer, printer. 

Pike, Z. M., Capt. United States Army. — Diary 
of a Tour through the Interior Provinces of New 
Spain in the year 1807, under an escort of Spanish 
dragoons. 

Powell, jf. W. — Exploration of the Colorado River 
of the West. Washington, 1875. Finely illustrated. 

Ramusius, M. John Baptista. — A Brief Discourse 
concerning the Three Voyages of Marco de Niza, 
Coronado, and Alarchon. In Hakluyt's Voyages, 
iii., p. 434, etc. 



THE A UTHORITIES. 1 g r 

Rusting, James F. — The Great West and the Pa- 
cific Coast. New York, 1877. Sheldon & Co. A 
part of this is on Arizona and Southern California. 

Ryan, W. R. — Personal Adventures in Upper and 
Lower California. 2 vols. London, 1850. Wm. 
Shoberl. 

Schaeffer, L. M. — Sketches of Travel in South 
America, Mexico, and California. New York, i860. 
James Egbert, printer. 

Shepard, A. K. — Papers on Spanish America. 
Albany, 1868. Joel Munsell. 

Simpson, J. H. — Coronado's March in search of 
the " Seven Cities of Cibola," and a Discussion of 
their probable Location. In " Smithsonian Re- 
port," 1869. This is as interesting as a novel. 

Simpson, J. H. — Journal of a Military Recon- 
noisance from Santa Fe to the Navajo Country. 
Philadelphia, 1852. Lippincott Grambo & Co. Is 
finely illustrated. 

Sitgreaves, L. — Report of an Expedition down 
the Zuni and Colorado Rivers. Washington, 1853. 
Profusely illustrated. Sen. Exec. Doc. 59 ; 2d sess., 
32d Cong. 

Spanish Settlements in America, An account of. 
Edinburgh, 1762. 

Sqaier, E. G. — New Mexico and California. The 
Ancient Monuments, etc. In " American Review," 
November, 1848. 



1 82 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Taylor, Bayard. — Eldorado ; or Adventures in the 
Path of Empire. New York, 1854. G. P. Putnam. 

Wheeler, G. M., Lieutenant. — Reports upon the 
Geographical and Geological Explorations and Sur- 
veys West of the 100th Meridian. 7 vols. Wash- 
ington, 1875. 

These explorations are under the control of the 
War Department. Only volumes three and five, 
and part of volume four are yet published. But as 
the other volumes will soon appear, and as these 
Reports are among the most interesting and valua- 
ble of the " Authorities " on the Southwest, we will 
place all of the volumes in this list. 

Vol. I. will contain a Geographical Report. 

Vol. II. will contain a Report on Astronomy 
and Meteorology. 

Vol. III. contains a Report on Geology and 
Mineralogy. 

Vol. IV. contains a Report on Paleontology. 

Vol. V. contains a Report on Zoology. 

Vol. VI. will contain a report on Botany. 

Vol. VII. will contain a Report on Ethnology, 
Philology, and Ruins. 

In addition to the Reports a valuable collection 
of large photographs of scenery and ruins in New 
Mexico and Arizona have been taken. 

Wise, Lieutenant. — Los Gringos ; or, An Inside 



THE A UTHORITIES. 1 83 

View of Mexico and California, etc. New York, 
1849. Baker & Scribner. 

Wislizenus, A. — Memoir of a Tour to Northern 
Mexico, connected with Colonel Doniphan's Ex- 
pedition. Washington, 1848. (Sen. Doc. No. 26; 
1st sess., 30th Cong.) This report contains much 
information about New Mexico. 

Wright, John A. — A paper on the Character and 
Promise of the Country on the Southern Border 
along or near the 32d Parallel. Philadelphia, 1876. 
Review Printing House. 

RESUME. 

The above list of English authorities embraces 
one hundred and six on Mexico, eighty-three on 
California, forty-six on Texas, sixteen on New 
Mexico, eight on Arizona, eight on Colorado, two 
on Nevada, eight on Utah, and sixty-four too gen- 
eral for the above classifications, making a total of 
three hundred and forty-one. Yet the Southwest 
is a country comparatively new to Anglo-American 
civilization. Why then so many works in English? 
It is because the subject is rich in attractive mate- 
rial for the historian. Not only does the Aztec 
civilization and the Spanish conquest furnish a 
mint of remarkable and brilliant events and facts, 
as attractive as romance, but the solid basis of 
wealth furnishes the writer on material subjects 
with an abundance of interesting facts. 



1 84 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



It will be noticed that a large portion of the list 
on Mexico, particularly the works on the resources, 
were published in London. It is, as will appear in 
a subsequent chapter, because of their extensive 
commerce with Mexico, and large investments in 
mines, that the English people have so carefully- 
examined and thoroughly reviewed the wealth of 
that portion of the Southwest. 

A noticeable feature of the books on the Aztec 
history is the enthusiasm of the writers, which the 
critic is sometimes disposed to call exaggeration. 
From the time Cortez sent his glowing dispatches 
to the King of Spain, and Diaz, the historian of the 
achievements of Cortez's army, described the splen- 
dors and luxuries of the Aztec capital, to the time 
that Prescott wrote his fascinating history of the 
Conquest, the same spirit of enthusiasm and admi- 
ration crops out in the writings of most of the his- 
torians. The critics who doubt the truthfulness of 
these histories cannot do better than consider the 
facts and figures in regard to the wealth of ancient 
Mexico, or visit some public library, which is so 
fortunate as to possess a set of Lord Kingsbo- 
rough's massive volumes or the antiquities, and see 
for themselves the fac-similes of the picture-writ- 
ings, and the illustrations of the ancient temples 
and other ruins. 

But quite as noticeable is the enthusiastic spirit 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



185 



of admiration which appears so frequently in the 
books of modern writers who are dealing with the 
resources of New Spain instead of its classic his- 
tory. The leading writers on the resources, those 
who have examined New Spain carefully, and in a 
business-like manner, seem to be surprised at the 
result of their investigation. As an illustration of 
this tendency on the part of prominent writers, 
which one frequently meets with in the examina- 
tion of the various authorities, we will quote the 
tributes of three authors, each one on a different 
portion of New Spain, viz. : Mexico, California, 
and Texas. Lempriere in his " Notes on Mexico," 
published in London, in 1862, says : " The merci- 
ful hand of Providence has bestowed on the Mexi- 
cans a magnificent land abounding in resources of 
all kinds — a land where none ought to be poor, and 
where misery ought to be unknown — a land whose 
products and riches of every kind are abundant, 
and as varied as they are rich. It is a country en- 
dowed to profusion with every gift that man can 
desire or envy ; all the metals from gold to lead ; 
every sort of climate from perpetual snow to tropi- 
cal heat, and inconceivable fertility." 
" One thing alone is wanting, that is a govern- 
ment."* 

* " Notes on Mexico," by Lempriere. See introduction to his 
book. 



1 86 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

Ernest Seyd, whose reputation for ability as a 
writer on finance gives weight to his opinions, 
made a careful examination of the resources of 
California, and in the introduction to his chapter 
on its agriculture, said : " We will begin by making 
the following assertion. There does not exist under 
the sun a country so wonderfully endowed with agri- 
cultural advantages as California, not a country 
more brilliant in its climate, nor one whose soil is 
more productive." * The italics are his. 

Of another portion of New Spain, Horace Greeley 
wrote in 1872 ; " Texas is as large as France, with 
a more genial climate and far richer soil. She has 
to-day less than one million inhabitants, while 
France (as reduced by the late war) has more than 
thirty-six millions. She has more and better tim- 
ber, and more cattle and horses than France. 
Why should not her fortieth part of France's pop- 
ulation be rapidly increased to a twentieth, a tenth, 
and before the close of this century to a fifth or 
fourth ? Why should not this State be the home 
of ten millions of the human family early the next 
century? " f 

If the future development of the Southwest is in 
accordance with its wealth, and possibilities, and 
the expectation of those who have most carefully 

* " California and its Resources," London, 1858, p. 114. 
f Greeley's Letters from Texas, p. 29-30. 



THE A UTHORITIES. 



187 



studied its past record, and its resources, we may 
expect a degree of civilization and luxury which 
will develop sufficient material for future histories 
and reviews far more numerous and entertaining 
than the authorities thus far written. 



!88 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE FOREIGN COMMERCE OF MEXICO. 



ITS NATURAL COURSE. 

No intention of nature is more clearly indicated 
than that the commercial exchanges between Mex- 
ico and the outside world should be chiefly with the 
United States. Baron Humboldt has called atten- 
tion to the great highway extending along the 
table-lands from Northern New Mexico to South- 
ern Old Mexico, as one of the wonders of nature. 
In a previous chapter we have reviewed the topo- 
graphical features, showing how the general course 
of the plateaus is northwardly through Mexico into 
the United States, and how the peculiar formation 
makes an almost insurmountable barrier between 
the coasts and great interior of Mexico. The com- 
mercial significance of this natural formation was 
officially and very clearly shown a few years ago in 
the report of the Mexican Committee on Mining 
Taxes, as follows : " The central table-land of our 
country is separated from either sea-coast by rug- 



FOREIGN COMMERCE OF MEXICO. 



189 



ged mountains and deep ravines breaking it into 
longitudinal zones of different temperatures and 
varied productions ; but this fact almost cuts off 
communication between these zones and the sea- 
coast east or west. While such natural difficulties 
exist, increased by territorial extent, manufactures 
and agriculture cannot thrive, because the cost of 
transportation is so great, we cannot contend with 
foreign competition, and our vegetable products 
must be confined to home consumption/'* In a 
history of the Mexican Railway, published at Mex- 
ico during the past year, we find still further testi- 
mony in regard to the barriers nature has placed in 
the way of commerce between the coasts and table- 
lands, viz., " the ascent from the coast to the cen- 
tral table-lands is difficult. Large masses of rock 
require to be perforated, lofty summits have to be 
overcome, behind which the fertile plains and val- 
leys of the center open out to a great extent." f 

Comparatively speaking Mexico is without a 
river-system, hence transportation must be by land 
instead of water. The table-lands, running north- 
wardly, furnish " excellent facilities, and, in fact, 
almost the only facilities for commercial highways. 
Again, nature's intention in regard to the course 



* See Appendix to Blake's "Production of Precious Metals," 

p. 318. 

f History of Mexican Railway by Baz and Gallo, p. 13. 



190 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



of trade appears in the character of the products. 
Mexico produces necessities and luxuries which the 
United States cannot produce, and we in turn pro- 
duce much that Mexico needs and does not produce 
or manufacture. 

We would then naturally expect an extensive in- 
tercourse and commerce between these two great 
and adjoining republics. Are the intentions of na- 
ture observed in this respect ? 

MEXICO'S EXCHANGES WITH ALL COUNTRIES. 

At the time Baron Humboldt wrote, the port of 
Vera Cruz was the only one frequented for the pur- 
poses of foreign trade, hence the statistics given 
may be said to represent all the exports and im- 
ports. For the year 1802 the total exports, via 
Vera Cruz, were $38,447,367 ; and the total im- 
ports, $21,998,588. Of the above total of exports 
about three-fourths, or $29,247,529, was silver coined 
and wrought. 

For the year 1803, the total exports, via Vera 
Cruz, were $14,482,917; and the total imports, 
$19,866,717. Of the exports for this year, silver 
constituted considerably over half, or $9,190,676.* 

At that time most of the foreign exchanges of 
Mexico were with Europe, and Humboldt, in order 
to give a fair illustration, or average, of the value 



* See Humboldt's " New Spain," p. 37-39. 



FOREIGN COMMERCE OF MEXICO. 



I 9 I 



to Europe of Spanish-American trade, tells how he 
formed his estimates, viz. : " To know as nearly as 
possible the value of the importations of Spanish- 
America, I endeavored to inform myself on the 
spot in each province of the state of commerce of 
the principal ports. I procured information rela- 
tive to the goods registered and those which were 
smuggled, and I turned, in a particular manner, my 
attention to those years when, either from a free 
trade with neutrals, or from the sales of prizes, a 
province was glutted with European and East India 
commodities." * From the statistics which he gives 
on this subject we have selected those which relate 
to Mexico. It will be observed, however, that the 
statistics of Guatemala are combined with those of 
Mexico, but, as the chief part belongs to Mexico, 
the reader can form a pretty correct idea of the 
value of that trade between Mexico and Europe : 

Viceroyalty 
of New 

Spain and 

Capitania 
General of 
Guatemala. 

Ward gives as the foreign commerce of the whole 
of Mexico for the period of twenty-five years. 



Imports 


Exports. 


from Europe and 

Asia, including 

Contraband. 


Agricultural 
Produce. 


Produce of SiU 
ver and Gold. 


$22,000,000 


$9,000,000 


$22,500,000 



* Idem, p. 126, 127. 



I92 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

1 796-1 820, the exports and imports of the port of 
Vera Cruz, viz. : * 

Exports. Dollars. 

Precious metals 209,777,206 

American produce 69,757,017 

Total 279,534,223 

Imports. Dollars. 

European productions 224,447,132 

American productions 34,658,808 

Total 259,105,940 

He gives the annual average of that period as 
follows : 

Exports. Dollars. 

Precious metals 8,391 ,088 

Other produce 2,790,280 

Total 11,181,368 

Imports. Dollars. 

European manufactures 

and produce 8,977,885 

American produce 1,386,352 

Total 10,364,237 

* Ward's Mexico, i. 413-417. 



FOREIGN COMMERCE OF MEXICO. 



193 



It will be observed that this annual average for 
the whole period is much less than that at the com- 
mencement of the present century as given by 
Humboldt. The decrease was caused by political 
troubles in Mexico arising from the attempt at in- 
dependence in 1 8 10, which continued until the in- 
dependence was established in 182 1. In the same 
manner, and for the same reason, did the products 
of silver and gold decrease after 1 8 10, as we have 
shown in a previous chapter. 

The foreign commerce of Mexico had, prior to 
the war with the United States, which commenced 
in 1846, recovered from the depressing effects of her 
revolutionary struggle. To illustrate the extent of 
her foreign trade at that period, Mayer, in his his- 
tory of Mexico, took the year 1844 as a fa* 1 " illus- 
tration. He gives the statistics as follows : * 

Total exports $11,032,835 

Total imports 21,139,234 

Of the total exports, nearly all, or $10,932,416, 
was precious metals, and precious metals in Mexico 
may be called silver. 

A few years after the war with the United States, 
the foreign commerce of Mexico had increased sev- 
eral millions in value. According to the " States- 

* Mayer's History of Mexico, ii. 99-100. 

9 



i 9 4 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



man's Year Book," the trade of 1856 was as fol- 
lows: 

Total exports. $28,000,000 

Total imports 26,000,000 

And for the ten years 1 859-1 868, the same au- 
thority gives the annual average of total exports 
and imports as follows, viz. : 

Exports $27,000,000 

Imports 24,000,000 

The above totals are inclusive of precious metals 
as well as products and manufactures. 

The total exports and imports of the year 1870 
were as follows : 

Exports $24,135,000 

Imports . . 23,478,000 

and of the exports of that year, $17,210,000 was 

silver. 

We have been unable to find the statistics of the 
total foreign trade of Mexico for every year, so in- 
stead of giving a complete table of statistics, we 
can only take certain years or periods. To illus- 
trate the amount and nature of that trade at the 
present time, we will take the statistics for the year 
ending June 30, 1873, as given in the annual report 



FOREIGN COMMERCE OF MEXICO. 



195 



of the State Department on the Commercial Rela- 
tions. That authority gives the totals as follows : * 

Exports $33,168,609 

Imports 29,062,406 

and of that total of exports, over three-fourths, or 
$ 2 5>373»673> was precious and other metals, of 
which it is safe to say nearly all was silver. Over 
one-third, or $10,531,970, of the imports of that 
year was " cotton stuffs," and it is safe to say al- 
most all of that item of imports was from distant 
Europe, instead of the great cotton-producing 
State of Texas just across the boundary line. To 
show what markets Mexico patronizes, we take 
from the same authority the following table of im- 
ports and exports by countries for the same year 
ending June 30, 1873 : f 

Countries. Imports. Exports. 

Miscellaneous $i,477>458 57 

Italy $9,03522.... 17,38900 

Great Britain 10,180,589 37. . . . 12,479,547 57 

UnitedStates 7,420,41943.... 11,366,53076 

France 4,817,11063 4,604,41738 

New Granada (via Panama). . . . 1,233,429 53 i,579>°i5 12 

SpainandCuba 1,394,21153.... 752,89191 

Germany 3,890,49617.... 802,64383 

Central America (Guatemala, 

and Honduras) 105,479 32. . . . 80,999 52 



* See Commercial Relations for 1875, p. 1129. 
f Idem, p. 1 1 29. 



196 



THE SILVER COUNTRY. 



Ecuador $10,43039.... $2,93175 

China 825 25.... 

Belgium 38010.... 4,78400 

Total $29,062,406 94 $33, 168,609 4i 

It will be observed, from this statement, that 
Mexico purchases chiefly in the European market. 
Omitting the imports from Spain, because the sta- 
tistics are combined with those of Cuba, the total 
purchases from Europe amount to $18,897,611, as 
against $7,420,419 from the United States. 

On the Pacific coast of Mexico, the European 
monopoly is still more noticeable. Of the foreign 
commerce of that coast, the United States consul 
at Guaymas reported to the State Department in 
1873 : " It is almost entirely in the hands of the 
Germans, Spanish, and English. In this port lead- 
ing merchants are Mexicans and Spanish. No 
American importing house on the West coast, and 
only one commission house of any importance 
which is in Guaymas." * 

MEXICO'S EXCHANGES WITH THE UNITED STATES. 

The annual reports of the United States on com- 
merce and navigation commence with the year end- 
ing September 30, 1821, the same year that Mexico 

* Commercial Relations for 1873, P- 825. 



FOREIGN COMMERCE OF MEXICO. 



I 9 7 



became an independent republic. But in the sta- 
tistical view of the commerce of that year, Mexico 
is not mentioned, nor is the trade with Mexico 
given separately until the year ending September 
30, 1825. Taking the statistics for 1825 and 1830, 
and every tenth year thereafter, as given in those 
official reports, we have the following view of the 
exchanges between the two republics. The statis- 
tics are inclusive of specie and bullion as well as 
produce and manufactures : 



Year Ending 

Sept. 30, 1825. . . 

1830... 

1840... 
June 30, 1850... 

i860... 

1870*. 



Total Exports to 

Mexico. 
$6,470,144 

4,837458 
2,515,341 
2,012,827 

5,354,073 
5,875,396 



Total Imports 
from Mexico. 
$4,044,647 

5, 2 35,24I 
4,I75,OOI 

2,135, 3 6( 5 

6,935,872 
13,099,031 



The statistics given by the Bureau of Statistics 
are for the past three years, as follows : f 



Year Ending 

June 30, 1874.. 

" 1875.. 
1876.. 



Total Exports to Total Imports 
Mexico. from Mexico. 

$6,004,370 $13,239,905 
5,770,783 H,634,983 
6,208,172 12,505,753 



* The statistics of this year are from " Quarterly Report of Bureau 
of Statistics," No. I, p. 93. 
f Idem, p. 93. 



198 the silver country. 

It will be observed that the United States ex- 
ports less to Mexico at the present time than she 
did fifty-one years ago, when Mexico had just com- 
menced as an independent republic. On the other 
hand, the imports from Mexico are three times as 
large as in 1825. 

As Mexico and the United States are adjoining 
American republics, the natural inference to be de- 
rived from the above statistics is that we do not 
produce nor manufacture what Mexico needs; and 
that Mexico cannot supply products in demand 
here. But the facts prove that inference is incor- 
rectly drawn. What, then, are the facts ? 

Of the $10,531,970 worth of cotton stuffs pur- 
chased by Mexico during the year, from June 30, 
1872, to June 30, 1873, the United States supplied 
from her own products and manufacture only the 
following insignificant amount in value, viz. : * 

Unmanufactured cotton $74,352 

Manufactured cotton (colored). . . 66,185 

" " (uncolored). 155,657 

All other cotton stuffs 73,244 

Total value $369,438 

Yet the United States can successfully and pro- 



* See Annual Report on Commerce and Navigation by Bureau of 
Statistics. 



FOREIGN COMMERCE OF MEXICO. 199 

fitably compete with every nation on earth in both 
the production and manufacture of cotton. 

Not only were cotton stuffs the chief item of 
Mexico's purchases for the above-mentioned year, 
but they have constituted the chief item of her im- 
ports every other year of the present generation. 
It follows, then, that there is some other than 
a natural barrier to our supplying her chief de- 
mand. 

Quicksilver is another item of Mexico's imports, 
her purchases of that commodity, in 1873, being in 
value $2,184,014.* Yet but a small portion of it 
was purchased from the United States, notwith- 
standing the fact that the part of this country 
where it is produced in great profusion is the por- 
tion nearest to Mexico. 

We have already observed that coffee and sugar 
are products peculiarly adapted to the soil and 
climate of Mexico. Our demand for those products 
is so great that the United States imports each 
year over fifty million dollars' worth of coffee ; and 
during the last three years the annual average value 
of our imports of sugar and molasses has been up- 
ward of eighty-one million dollars.f Yet Mexico 
supplies but a small fraction of this demand. 

As we stated in the outset, this is a book of facts 

* See Paper on Mexico in Annual Cyclopaedia for 1876. 
f See Quarterly Report, No. I, of Bureau of Statistics, p. 97. 



200 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

— not theories — so we will not discuss principles of 
political economy. But, as a matter of fact, it is 
safe to assert that whatever theory of political 
economy is responsible for the above showing, 
needs to be remodeled. 



AD VANCE OF RAIL WA YS. 2 Ql 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE ADVANCE OF RAILWAYS. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS. 

In the palmy days of the Roman Empire, good 
public highways were considered indispensable to 
the welfare of the State. Gibbon, in describing its 
magnificent system of military roads, says : " No 
country was considered subdued till it had been 
rendered pervious to the arms and authority of the 
conqueror." * The victories of peace, as well as 
war, require the same aids for their advancement. 
At the present stage of civilization, the nation 
which neglects to supply its territory with suitable 
roads will be slow in its material development, and 
will fall behind in the race for commercial suprem- 
acy. New Spain is no exception to this fundamen- 
tal rule. Nor is the United States an exception in 
competition with other nations for the trade of 
Mexico. Even the early native races of New 
Spain, and other parts of Spanish America, recog- 

* Gibbon's Rome, i. 63. 

9* 



202 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

nized this fundamental principle and acted upon it. 
Long before the Spanish had discovered Peru, the 
native races had completed a costly system of in- 
ternal improvements by building highways for their 
armies and commerce. Bancroft says : " Among 
the most remarkable Peruvian remains are the 
paved roads which cross the country in every direc- 
tion especially from north to south. Two of the 
grandest highways extended from the region north 
of Quito, southwest to Cuzco, and, according to 
some authors, still farther to Chili. One runs over 
the mountains, the other chiefly through the plains. 
Their length is at least twelve hundred miles, and 
the grading of the mountain-roads presented, as Mr. 
Baldwin believes, far greater difficulties than the 
Pacific Railroad. These roads are from eighteen to 
twenty-six feet wide, protected at the sides by a 
thick wall, and paved generally with stone-blocks, 
but sometimes with a mixture of cement and fine 
stone, an aboriginal infringement on the Macadam 
process. The highways followed a straight course 
and turned aside for no obstacle. Ravines and 
marshes were filled up with masonry, and the solid 
rock of the mountains was cut away for many 
miles." * 

The same historian of the native races says of a 



* Bancroft's " Native Races," iv. 794-5. 



ADVANCE OF RAILWA YS. 



203 



road in Yucatan, one of the Southern States of 
New Spain, " M. Charnay found a magnificent road 
from seven to eight metres wide, whose foundation 
is of immense stones surmounted by a concrete, 
perfectly preserved, which is covered with a coat- 
ing of cement two inches thick. This road is every- 
where about a metre and a half above the surface 
of the ground." * 

These accounts, from ancient history, of costly 
highways, are a better indication of a high degree 
of civilization and prosperity of the classic nations 
than are the stories of their ancient temples and 
ruins. They show that the Romans, the Incas 
of Peru, and the Aztecs of Mexico had already 
adopted theories of government, had advanced be- 
yond the recluse state, to intercourse among them- 
selves and neighboring nations, to a desire for civil- 
ization and commerce. 

The far-seeing father of the Republic of the 
United States did not overlook the importance of 
national highways. After he had exchanged the 
duties of the soldier for those of the statesman, he 
became an earnest advocate of a system of internal 
improvements to connect the Atlantic States with 
the Mississippi Valley. His letters in 1784, and 
1785, to the President of Congress, and to the Gov- 

* Idem, p. 266-267. 



204 THE SIL VER COUNTRY. 

ernor of Virginia, show that he considered it impor- 
tant for political, as well as ccmmercial reasons, 
that the waters of the Potomac or James River 
should be connected with those of the Ohio by 
means of a canal. That in this way would the set- 
tlers in the Mississippi Valley be bound to the At- 
lantic States by ties of interest, and the danger of 
their uniting their fortunes with the foreign nations 
in the rear be thereby averted.* 

But the civilization of the present day demands 
a particular class of highways. Civilization, and 
railways, and commerce, go hand in hand, and each 
helps the other. The advance of the material 
development of any country intersected by rail- 
ways is as much faster than formerly, as is the 
speed of the locomotive greater than the old-fash- 
ioned stage coach. The recent official report on 
the internal commerce of the United States says 
that, " during the year 1876, eighty-three per cent. 
of all the grain receipts of the Atlantic seaports 
was by rail, and it is estimated that over ninety per 
cent, of all the commerce between the West and 
the seaboard is now carried on over the great trunk 
railroads." f So important is this particular class 
of highways, in the exchanges of the present day, 



* The Writings of George Washington, ix. 58-119. 
f First Annual Report on the Internal Commerce of the United 
States, by Joseph Nimmo, Washington, 1877, p. 8. 



AD VANCE OF RAIL WA VS. 



205 



that over three-fourths of the commerce of St. 
Louis, the central city of the finest river system of 
the whole world, was, during the year 1875, carried 
by rail ; or to be exact, seventy-eight per cent, was 
by rail, and twenty-two per cent, by river.* It 
seems odd, in this material age, to be talking of the 
importance of railways ; but it also appears strange 
that the great Southwest, the richest portion of the 
earth in precious metals, and the oldest part of 
America in European civilization, is comparatively 
a stranger to railways, and is permitting its riches 
to remain undeveloped. What are the facts and 
figures ? 

THE ADVANCE OF RAILWAYS IN THE UNITED 
STATES AND THE SOUTHWEST. 

The second half of the first century of the re- 
public witnessed the commencement of the first 
railway in this country. It was in New England 
instead of New Spain, and near Boston. But it was 
simply a freight line, of a few miles, to bring to 
market the products of a stone quarry.f The first 
railway proper, as described by Poor, was com- 
menced " on the fourth of July, 1828, the first act 

* Idem, p. 107. 

I Manual of Railways of the United States, 1876-77, by H. V. 
Poor, p. v. 



2o6 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

being performed by the venerable Charles Carroll 
of Carrollton, the only surviving signer of the De- 
claration of Independence. At the close of the 
ceremony of breaking ground, Mr. Carroll said, " I 
consider this among the most important acts of my 
life, second only to that of signing the Declaration 
of Independence, if even second to that/' * This 
was the beginning of the present Baltimore and 
Ohio road. Ever since then railways have been 
gradually advancing westward ; in the meanwhile 
they have been intersecting every portion of the 
Eastern States. Not until the third quarter of the 
first century did they cross the Mississippi River ; 
and not until 1850 did they enter the limits of New 
Spain. A glance at the map in the forepart of this 
volume, shows that they have not yet crossed the 
great interior of New Spain, but end abruptly near 
the borders, as if afraid to trespass upon a country 
so rich in treasures. 

The following table shows the mileage of railways 
of the United States, New Spain, and the Mexican 
half of New Spain at the close of periods of five 
years beginning with 1830, and ending with the 
close of 1875, or the close of the first century.f 

* Idem, p. v. 

f Nearly all of the following statistics are compiled from Poor's 
" Railway Manual," for 1876-77 and 1877-78. 



AD VANCE OF RAIL WA VS. 



207 



United States. New Spain. Mexico. 
1830 41 O O 

1835 1,098 o o 

1840 2,818 o o 

1845 4,633 ° ° 

1850 9,021 7 7 

1855 18,374 58 10 

i860 30,635 350 20 

1865 35,085 767 88 

1870 52,906 2,992 217 

1875 74,658 5,069 327 

The next table shows the mileage of railways of 
the various portions of New Spain at the end of 
periods of five years each commencing with 1850, 
and ending with the close of 1875. 

Corner 
S.&W. New of 

Cali- Ne- Colo- Mex- Ari- Wyo- 

Year. Mexico, fornia. Texas. Utah. vada. rado. ico. zona. ming. 

1850... 7 o 000 0000 

1855... 10 8 40 00 0000 

i860... 20 23 307 00 0000 

1865... 88 214 465 00 0000 

1870. ..217 925 711 257 593 000 289 

1875... 327 1,503 1,685 5 X 5 650 100 o o 289 

From the above tables it appears that the United 
States had 9,021 miles of railway when New Spain 
had but 7 miles ; that the portion of the United 
States which was acquired from Mexico had but 
48 miles, when the rest of the United States had 



208 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

18,326 miles; that, with the exception of 767 miles, 
all the railways of the Southwest were built during 
the last ten years of the first century of the re- 
public ; that at the present time there is not a single 
mile of railway in any of those rich border States — 
New Mexico, Arizona, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Du- 
rango ; that there is not a single mile of railway con- 
necting the two great zvealthy and neighboring re- 
publics, the one composed of thirty-eight States, 
nine Territories, and a federal District, the other 
composed of twenty-seven States, one Territory, 
and a federal District. 

THE ADVANCE OF RAILWAYS IN THE SOUTHWEST 
COMPARED WITH THAT OF OTHER COUNTRIES 
AND THE WORLD. 

We have on a previous page claimed that the 
United States has at her own door a more mag- 
nificent land than India, awaiting an adequate de- 
velopment of its riches. It may be interesting, for 
purposes of comparison, to see what steps the Eng- 
lish people have taken to develop the resources of 
their distant possession. When Lord Dalhousie 
was Governor-General of India he planned a system 
of railways which have been constructed to the ex- 
tent of 7,152 miles.* Lines of road start from the 

* " History of India," by L. J. Trotter, p. 348, and Poor's " Rail- 
way Manual " for 1877-78, p. xlix. 



AD VANCE OF RAIL WA YS. 



209 



two great harbors of India, one on the east and the 
other on the west coast, and extend into, diverge, 
and intersect the great interior, forming a net- 
work of railways which makes possible a suitable de- 
velopment of that rich country. The Statesman's 
Year Book, for 1877, says: " The internal com- 
merce of India has been vastly developed of late 
years by the construction of several great lines of 
railways made under the guarantee of the Govern- 
ment. In the year 1845 two great private associa- 
tions were formed for the purpose of constructing 
lines of railroad in India ; but the projectors found 
it impossible to raise the necessary funds for their 
proposed schemes without the assistance of the 
State. It was therefore determined by the Indian 
Government to guarantee to the railway companies, 
for a term of 99 years, a rate of interest of 5 per 
cent, upon the capital subscribed for their under- 
takings." * 

But the English people were not content with 
the development of their own India. Their enter- 
prise seeks also the riches of Mexico, and English 
capitalists have completed, and are the chief owners 
of the railway from Vera Cruz, the most important 
harbor of the republic, to the highly elevated Capi- 
tal. As this line constitutes nearly all of the rail- 
way mileage of Mexico, Englishmen may be said to 

* " Statesman's Year Book " for 1877, p. 696. 



2 10 THE SIL VER CO UNTR Y. 

monopolize the most important of the internal im- 
provements of that rich land. Their commercial 
policy is more noticeable when we consider that 
they came to a distant American republic to con- 
struct a commercial highway which, on account of 
the topographical obstacles, is one of the most re- 
markable achievements of railway engineering. A 
recent work on Mexico, published in London, says: 
" The line may be divided into three sections ; the 
first from Mexico over the plateau of Tierra Fria 
to Boca del Monte, a distance of 156 miles; thence 
down the steep descent of the Cumbres to Paso del 
Macho, 60 miles ; and finally thence along the gently 
sloping Tierra Caliente to Vera Cruz, 47 miles." Of 
the middle section of the line the author says : " In 
a distance of 25 miles, the road descends almost 
4,000 feet, where curves of 300 feet radius, and gra- 
dients of three or four per cent., often over loose 
and yielding ground, follow one another in quick 
succession.'' * 

Comparing different portions of Spanish Amer- 
ica, we find that Pizzaro's Peru has nearly three 
times as much railway mileage as Cortez's Mexico. 

At the commencement of 1877, Peru had 1,238 
miles already built. At the present time there is 
in process of construction a line which had been 

* " Peep at Mexico " by J. L. Geiger, pp. 326 and 327. 



AD VANCE OF RAIL WA YS. 2 II 

appropriately termed " a railway in the clouds," * 
extending from the Pacific Ocean, across the Andes, 
at a height above the sea of 15,645 feet, to the 
waters of the Amazon River on the east. The line 
is to be continued eastward until it unlocks the 
treasures of the Cerro de Pasco silver mines. 

The Argentine Republic, another portion of 
Spanish America, and, as usual with Spanish Amer- 
ican countries, rich in silver, has now 1,466 miles of 
railway. That Government, in 1863, guaranteed to 
Mr. Wheelwright, a native of New England, the 
interest on a certain sum per mile to enable him to 
build the Grand Central Argentine Railway. At 
the inauguration of the work, the President of the 
republic said: "Every one must rejoice on the 
opening of this great road, for it will tend to people 
solitudes, to give riches where there is poverty, and 
to institute order where anarchy reigns." f 

These facts indicate that the Spanish nations of 
South America are entering upon a new era of de- 
velopment, and that Mexico, which is larger and 
richer than any of her Spanish sisters, is falling be- 
hind in the race. 

The following table shows how the railways of 
New Spain and the Mexican portion of it compare 

* See "Scribner's Monthly" for August, 1877. 

\ " Life of William Wheelwright" by Alberdi, p. 146. 



212 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

with those of the United States and the whole 
world in 1877 : 

Mileage. 

The whole world 194,836 

The United States 77A70 

New Spain . . 6,110 

Mexico 378 

Yet half of New Spain is within the progressive 
United States, and the other half is next-door neigh- 
bor! 

Why this indifference to the demands of civiliza- 
tion, neglect of internal improvements, and disre- 
gard of commerce ? Why has the country, which 
produces 75 per cent, of the silver of the world, but 
3tW per cent, of the railway mileage of the world ? 
Is nature the cause of this singular condition of 
affairs, and has she placed barriers to the advance 
of railways through the Southwest ? 

FACILITIES FOR BUILDING RAILWAYS IN THE 
SOUTHWEST. 

Whatever barriers nature has placed in the way 
of progress, in New Spain, are between the coast 
and interior of Mexico, and not along the great 
table-lands, for they make the construction of pub- 
lic highways north and south, through the great 
interior of New Spain, comparatively easy. We 



AD VANCE OF RAIL WA VS. 



213 



have already noticed on previous pages how dif- 
ficult was the building of the Vera Cruz Railway 
and that the highly elevated table-lands, which de- 
cline abruptly on the east and west, toward the 
coast of Mexico, present, most everywhere, similar 
obstacles to the advance of railways from the 
oceans ; that the Mexicans themselves, in an official 
report, have recognized and regretted the obstacles 
to communication between the coast and the in- 
terior ; how the great interior of New Spain is ur- 
like the great interior of the United States without 
a river system, and therefore all the more depen- 
dent upon railways for its material development and 
commerce ; also how the elevated table-lands which 
extend from Mexico into the United States grad- 
ually slope toward the border line, there find their 
lowest elevation, and then ascend in the shape of an 
inclined plain northwardly through New Mexico.* 
Of the facilities for commercial highways furnished 
by the table-lands, Humboldt says : " Carriages may 
run from Mexico to Santa Fe in an extent which 
exceeds the length which the chain of the Alps 
would have, if it was prolonged without interrup- 
tion, from Geneva to the shores of the Black Sea. 
In fact, the central table-land is traveled in four- 
wheeled carriages in all directions from the Capital 

* Ante, pp. 210, 21-25, and 188. 



214 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

to Guanaxuato, Durango, Chihuahua, Valladolid, 
Guadalaxara, and Perote."* 

In his " Views of Nature," in describing this 
natural highway along the flattened crest of the 
mountains between Santa Fe and the City of Mex- 
ico, he gives a table of elevations along the line. 
The two extremities, Mexico and Santa Fe, are re- 
spectively 7,469 and 7,047 feet above the sea ; but 
the elevation at El Paso, near the border line, is 
only 3,810 feet.f This depression in the table- 
lands extends through their whole width, from east 
to west, making through the center of New Spain, 
and at 32 north latitude, near the border between 
Mexico and the United States, another invitation 
from nature for the advance of railways. J 

This idea would appear more clearly on the ac- 
companying map if we had given the elevations ac- 
cording to every thousand feet ; but having no data 
to illustrate, in this manner, the topography of 
Mexico, it was necessary to give the corresponding 
elevations for the United States. 

Emory's official report on the Mexican Boundary 
Survey describes the peculiar formation very clearly 
as follows: "This plateau attains its greatest ele- 
vation in Mexico, where it is ten thousand feet 

* Humboldt's " New Spain," iv., pp. 2 and 3. 

\ "Views of Nature," p. 208. 

% Pacific Railway Reports, i., pp. 4 and 5. 



AD VANCE OF RAIL WA YS. 



21$ 



above the level of the sea. Its lowest depression 
is along the line of the boundary, about the paral- 
lel of 32 north latitude, where it is about four 
thousand feet above the sea. Thence it ascends 
again, and preserves an elevation varying from 
seven to eight thousand feet to near the 49th paral- 
lel." 

Again, after mentioning some features of the 
Sierra Nevada Mountains, he says : " That range, 
as well as the Sierra Madre and the Rocky Moun- 
tains, about the parallel of 32 , lose their con- 
tinuous character, and assume the forms that are 
graphically described in the western country as lost 
mountains — that is to say, mountains which have 
no apparent connection with each other. They 
preserve, however, their general direction, N. W. 
and S. E., showing that the upheaving power 
which produced them was the same, but in a di- 
minished and irregular force. They rise abruptly 
from the plateau, and disappear as suddenly ; and 
by winding around the bases of these mountains it 
is possible to pass through the mountain system, in 
this region, near the parallel of 32 , almost on a 
level of the plateau, so that if the sea were to rise 
4,000 feet above its present level the navigator 
could cross the continent near the 33d parallel of 
latitude. He would be on soundings of uniform 
depth from the Gulf of California to the Pecos 



2l6 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

River." . . . "I noticed this remarkable de- 
pression in the continent in an exploration made 
by me in 1846, and called to it the attention of 
Mr. Buchanan, then Secretary of State ; and it was 
upon this information that he instructed our min- 
ister, then negotiating the treaty of Guadalupe Hi- 
dalgo, not to take a line north of the 32d parallel 
of latitude in the boundary between the United 
States and Mexico."* 

Nature has not only done her part to facilitate 
the material development of the Southwest by 
making easy the construction of commercial high- 
ways through its center, from north to south, and 
east to west, but she has indicated her intentions 
in such unmistakable terms that it is a discredit to 
American enterprise that those channels of trade 
are not already open and the products and manu- 
factures of the two republics finding a continuous 
interchange. 

She has stored such vast quantites of silver and 
gold beneath the surface of the great Southwest 
that it must be artificial, and temporary, instead of 
natural barriers, that have kept railways from ad- 
vancing to tap its wealth. 

* Report on Mexican Boundary, by W. H. Emory, i., pp. 40 
and 41. 



AD VANCE OF RA IL WA VS. 21/ 

REASONS WHY RAILWAYS HAVE NOT CROSSED 
THE SOUTHWEST. 

The temporary blockade of the development of 
New Spain was caused, first, by the lethargic civil- 
ization which has possessed that country since the 
days of the Conquest. It was the Northeast, or New 
England, which received the progressive civiliza- 
tion that has made such thorough work of develop- 
ing whatever resources nature placed in their way. 
Gold was what the Spanish conquerors sought in 
New Spain, but during a supremacy of three hun- 
dred years they unlocked but a small portion of the 
treasures of the mines. And since the commence- 
ment of Mexican supremacy in 1821, less attention 
has been given to internal improvements, and less 
thorough has been the development of the re- 
sources. 

Another temporary barrier to progress in the 
Southwest since railways advanced across the Mis- 
sissippi River, was the existence of slavery. The 
dread on the part of the North of adding strength 
to that institution placed a blockade upon internal 
improvements so far south. Fortunately the first 
century of the republic witnessed the removal of 
unnatural obstacles to progress in the richest por- 
tion of the continent. 
10 



2i8 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

A LOOK AHEAD. 

The railway builders, or the Anglo-Americans, 
have gradually extended their thrifty civilization 
westward, and are now cencentrating their energies 
near the borders of New Spain, preparatory to in- 
tersecting that magnificent land with suitable high- 
ways, and making thorough work of its develop- 
ment. A glance at the map shows how, from the 
north, from the eastern portion of Texas, and from 
the Pacific coast, railways have been commenced, 
and are advancing toward the interior and the 
great mining region. Herein lies the adequate 
development and prosperity of Mexico, and the 
rest of New Spain. If the Southwest, during the 
three hundred and fifty-five years since the con- 
quest by Cortez, has been able, without rail- 
ways and with no thrifty civilization, to make 
such a wonderful record in the products of silver 
and gold, what may we not expect when railways 
intersect its territory, and open up its latent riches ? 

The experience of California and Nevada during 
the past few years, with some of the modern aids to 
advancement, is an indication of the brilliant devel- 
opment we may expect in the Southwest as a whole. 

And with railways will advance the commercial 
supremacy of the United States. 



CONCLUSION. 2ig 



CONCLUSION. 



The study of the Southwest is a series of sur- 
prises, whether investigating its yield of silver and 
gold, the variety of its other resources, its topo- 
graphy and wonderful scenery, its luxuries, or the 
wealth of its written history. But still greater is 
the surprise that under a European civilization, for 
three hundred and fifty-five years, its resources are 
comparatively undeveloped, its highways unbuilt, 
and, as a whole, its political power insignificant. 

We have seen, in comparing its precious metals 
with those of the world for the same periods, that 
the Southwest, from 1 521 to 1876, produced over one- 
third of the combined products of silver and gold of 
the whole world ; that its silver product was, from 
1 52 1 to 1804, a trifle less than half of that of the 
world ; from 1804 to 1848, over half of that of the 
world; from 1848 to 1868, half of that of the 
world ; from [868 to 1876, but a trifle less than two- 
thirds of that of the world ; and for 1875, the last 
year of the whole period, three-fourths of that of the 
world. 

Yet its modern development has scarcely com- 
menced. 

The first century of the republic of the United 



220 THE SILVER COUNTRY. 

States was largely spent in the formation of a gov- 
ernment, the settlement of political principles, the 
conflict over slavery, the civil war, reconstruction, 
and finally reconciliation. Happily those ques- 
tions are disposed of, and the arts of peace, internal 
improvements, the developments of the resources, 
the revival of industries are the beginning of a new 
era and a new policy. Under this policy the South- 
west, because of its great natural wealth, becomes 
conspicuous as the favorite field for operations. 
And why should it not be the favorite field when it 
has already produced in silver and gold $4,887,512,- 
605, or more than double the amount of the national 
debt at the close of 1876; and more than the total 
sum invested in all of the railways of the United 
States, which was estimated to be at the beginning 
of last year $4,600,000,000.* Yet the Southwest is 
itself comparatively a stranger to railways. 

The Monroe doctrine, which was opposed to the 
introduction upon this continent of the European 
system, or forms of government, has become a well- 
settled policy, and was re-affirmed at the time 
Maximilian was in power in Mexico, and resulted 
in the withdrawal of the French troops and his subse- 
quent downfall. But, in marked contrast to this es- 
tablished principle, the business community of the 

* Poor's Manual of Railways for 1876-7, p. xiii. 



CONCLUSION. 221 

United States have ever been content to see Eng- 
land, and France, and other commercial nations of 
Europe, monopolize the foreign trade of Mexico. 
Nature intended that trade for this country, and a 
suitable effort to obtain it must be crowned with 
success. Already has the tide of American enter- 
prise turned in that direction. 

The Southwest is the richest part of the earth's 
surface in precious metals, the only part of North 
America in native civilization, the oldest part of 
America in European civilization, such as it was, 
yet the last of all to receive a progressive civiliza- 
tion. Its new era of development has opened at a 
time when modern agencies of civilization and ad- 
vancement, such as the railway, the telegraph, the 
most improved mining machinery and agricultural 
implements, have nearly reached a stage of perfec- 
tion. And with such aids this rich land is destined to 
show a record of material development, and wealth, 
unparalleled by any history yet written. 



THE END 



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